Babylonian literature : lectures delivered at the Royal institution / by the Rev. A.H. Sayce.

  • Archibald Sayce
Date:
[1877]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Babylonian literature : lectures delivered at the Royal institution / by the Rev. A.H. Sayce. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ❖ BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. MONO the achievements of modern science there is none more remarkable than the decipherment of the cuneiform or wedge-shaped inscriptions of Assyria and Babylonia. A century ago their very existence was unknown, and the few Babylonian seals and bricks that found their way into the hands of travellers were supposed to be inscribed, not with written characters, but with ornamental designs. On the sacred rock of Behistun, where Darius Hystaspis left enduring memorials of himself and his conquered rivals. Sir Robert Ker Porter saw Tiglath-Pileser and the ten tribes, and Keppel the portraiture of Esther and her attendants. The elder Niebuhr published the first exact copies of the cuneiform inscriptions of Persia, but he sacrificed his eyesight to the work. In 1798 Tychsen of Rostock hazarded the conjecture that the characters were alphabetical and to be read from right to left; while Lichtenstein laid down that in their various combinations only one was essential, the rest being added by way of ornament. In the first year of the
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