History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 | Page 4

has at Niffer unearthed monuments of older date than those of Sargon of Accad. Nor
must I forget to mention the lotiform column found by Mr. de Morgan in a tomb of the

Old Empire at Abusir, or the interesting discovery made by Mr. Arthur Evans of seals
and other objects from the prehistoric sites of Krete and other parts of the AEgean,
inscribed with hieroglyphic characters which reveal a new system of writing that must at
one time have existed by the side of the Hittite hieroglyphs, and may have had its origin
in the influence exercised by Egypt on the peoples of the Mediterranean in the age of the
twelfth dynasty.
In volumes IV., V., and VI. we find ourselves in the full light of an advanced culture. The
nations of the ancient East are no longer each pursuing an isolated existence, and
separately developing the seeds of civilization and culture on the banks of the Euphrates
and the Nile. Asia and Africa have met in mortal combat. Babylonia has carried its
empire to the frontiers of Egypt, and Egypt itself has been held in bondage by the Hyksôs
strangers from Asia. In return, Egypt has driven back the wave of invasion to the borders
of Mesopotamia, has substituted an empire of its own in Syria for that of the Babylonians,
and has forced the Babylonian king to treat with its Pharaoh on equal terms. In the track
of war and diplomacy have come trade and commerce; Western Asia is covered with
roads, along which the merchant and the courier travel incessantly, and the whole
civilised world of the Orient is knit together in a common literary culture and common
commercial interests.
The age of isolation has thus been succeeded by an age of intercourse, partly military and
antagonistic, partly literary and peaceful. Professor Maspero paints for us this age of
intercourse, describes its rise and character, its decline and fall. For the unity of Eastern
civilization was again shattered. The Hittites descended from the ranges of the Taurus
upon the Egyptian province of Northern Syria, and cut off the Semites of the west from
those of the east. The Israelites poured over the Jordan out of Edom and Moab, and took
possession of Canaan, while Babylonia itself, for so many centuries the ruling power of
the Oriental world, had to make way for its upstart rival Assyria. The old imperial powers
were exhausted and played out, and it needed time before the new forces which were to
take their place could acquire sufficient strength for their work.
As usual, Professor Maspero has been careful to embody in his history the very latest
discoveries and information. Notice, it will be found, has been taken even of the stela of
Meneptah, recently disinterred by Professor Pétrie, on which the name of the Israelites is
engraved. At Elephantine, I found, a short time since, on a granite boulder, an inscription
of Khufuânkh--whose sarcophagus of red granite is one of the most beautiful objects in
the Gizeh Museum--which carries back the history of the island to the age of the
pyramid-builders of the fourth dynasty. The boulder was subsequently concealed under
the southern side of the city-wall, and as fragments of inscribed papyrus coeval with the
sixth dynasty have been discovered in the immediate neighbourhood, on one of which
mention is made of "this domain" of Pepi II., it would seem that the town of Elephantine
must have been founded between the period of the fourth dynasty and that of the sixth.
Manetho is therefore justified in making the fifth and sixth dynasties of Elephantine
origin.
It is in Babylonia, however, that the most startling discoveries have been made. At Tello,
M. de Sarzec has found a library of more than thirty thousand tablets, all neatly arranged,

piled in order one on the other, and belonging to the age of Gudea (b.c. 2700). Many
more tablets of an early date have been unearthed at Abu-Habba (Sippara) and Jokha
(Isin) by Dr. Scheil, working for the Turkish government. But the most important finds
have been at Niffer, the ancient Nippur, in Northern Babylonia, where the American
expedition has brought to a close its long work of systematic excavation. Here Mr.
Haynes has dug down to the very foundations of the great temple of El-lil, and the chief
historical results of his labours have been published by Professor Hilprecht (in The
Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, vol. i. pl. 2, 1896).
About midway between the summit and the bottom of the mound, Mr. Haynes laid bare a
pavement constructed of huge bricks stamped with the names of Sargon of Akkad and his
son Naram-Sin. He found also the ancient wall of the city, which had been built by
Naram-Sin, 13.7 metres wide. The