Excavations in Iraq

Abstract

ACCORDING to a statement issued by Prof. J. H. Breasted and circulated by Science Service (Washington), after a visit to the various excavations in the Near East now being conducted by the Oriental Institute of Chicago, the tablet containing the list of kings of Assyria recently discovered at Khorsabad by the expedition under Dr. H. Frankfort, will shortly be shipped to the United States for study and publication. The lists are in cuneiform on two sides of a baked clay tablet and contain the names of ninety-three kings. They end about 730 B.C. just before the reign of Sargon IT, which began in 722 B.c. As the lists cover a period of thirteen or fourteen hundred years, they carry back Assyrian history to about 2200 B.C. and add an unbroken line of eight new kings preceding Ushpia, previously the earliest known king, who ruled not long before 2000 B.C. Prof. Breasted also refers to the discovery at Khorsabad of the temple of Nabu or Nebo, mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, which he regards as one of the most important finds made by the expeditions of the Institute during the past season. As Nabu was the god of writing, his temple should, Prof. Breasted expects, contain records of importance. At Perse-polis, where the excavations aie in charge of Dr. E. N. Herzfeld; what would appear to be a library of records in the Elamite language has been unearthed in moving the field railroad. Although at present only very imperfectly examined, the tablets would appear to contain records connected with the building of the palaces.