READING THE MAIL OF 2000 B.C.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 13, 30 January 1937, Page 11

READING THE MAIL OF 2000 B.C.

BAKED CLAY TABLETS ArcHaeologists' Researches

gEOAUSE Mesopotamian merchants, landowners, publie oflficials and lovers wrote their letters on baked clay tablets 4000 yearte ago, all the world to-day may read the most intimate details of their business and private lives, writes Herbert B. Nichols in ihe "Ghristian Science Monitor." Noted epigraphers from American and Oriental universities, learned scholars whose task in archaelogical research is the deciphering of ancient documents, find that back in 2000 B.O. people not only told all their business in writing, but made "carbon copies" as well. It was the custom in those days to enclose business dealings in a thin clay covering on which the substance of the original document was repeated. They were bricklike in form, these ancient letters,. and in this electios year of 1936 A.D., when laws against slander and libel are the only boundaries to "mudslinging," politicians may look back with envy to a time when missives intended to be partieularly forceful could easily be changed into personally addressed missiles. Take the case of Babylonian vigilantes who -fcripped up His Honour^ the Mayor of Nuzi, depriving him of his office. Aecording to documentary court refords of the "People vs. Mayor Kushshibarbe" there were any number of citizens who would have enjoyed tossingj brickbats in the direction of this racketeering public official and his henchmen. He was accused of so many deplorable crimes that were he alive to-day Alcatraz would consider him a close aspirant for the illusive title, Public Enemy No. 1. Fourteen tablets, uncovered by a joint Semitic and Fogg Art Museums jxpedition from Harvard to Nuzi (near Kirkuk Mesopotamia), contain all the known details of testimony against him. Apparently the. case was a long-.irawn-out offair, for, aecording to Dr. Sphraim A. Speise^ director of the \merican Schools oi Oriental Research, iaghdad, the evidence was presented efore several iudges before sentenco > as passed. If one depends upon the story in jiay, there was even, at this early date, a close partnership between pubiic officials and crime, a situation not eorreeted until an enraged citizenry, aroused by Tighteous indignation,

orov^iit the ringleader to trial. "I paid the mayor two sheep and one mina of lead, and he released my wife,'» reads one document allegedly pertaining to a kidnappingv The signature is that of a witness named "Paya." Evidently kidnapping was a profitable sideline for the mayor, for tliere were other similar depositions. As food racketeers, his lieutenants would fare rather badly these days. Federal food inspectors are too active to permit any such adulteration of the milk supply as was evidently practised then. Another tablet reads: "Four eheep Kipiya took away, and from them, two he released and two he kept. Thus he said, "And why indeed do you take your milk to he diluted with water?" For vividness and human toueb the charges and counter charges in this case are difficult to match "anywhere. They are the more impressive when one remembers that these are not copies of earlier originals, but are actual records, exactly as they were written by the court scribes. They are of inestimable value to scientists in throwing light on the social, political and economio conditions of this regon during the second millenniumf B.C. At the site of Nuzi alone, more than 1000 tablets were found, which give Assyriologists a very good idea o± how people act-ed in this ancient "Main Street" town. Oue tablet tells how Puhishenni, the son of Mashapu, gave 49 pebbles in an oval container, to his shepherd boy, each pebble standing for a single sheep he was held accountable for. Another reveals how a mother, Sheltannaya, managed tho family patrimony and disposed ot nlaves and real estate in a nearby city. Probably the most interesting tablet . of the whole colleetion gatherea at i Nuzi is a/'map" of some large estate. , In the cehtre of the briclc represen- , tation.is a circle with an inscription to

the left indicating that slightly more than 300 acres are shown. To the right of this circle 'is another inscription, perhaps containing the nrst, which reads, "Belonging to Azala." Whether Azala is a personal name or the name of a community is still not clear to translators. This is believed to he the oldest map extant. Running through the centre, apparently from north to south, is either a river or irrigation canal, inscribed "the fructifier." By three channels it apparently leads to a large body of water where broken lines indicate waves. ■ • ' • • Unfortunately, the legend on this "ocean",is broken. Two mountain ranges, one in the east and the other in the west, are very clearly drawn, but neither are ' labeled. Tentatively, the region has been identified as depicting a district not far from Nuzi, somewhere between the Zagros Mountains and a chain of hills running north and south through the modern city oi Kirkuk. When the may was found by the late Prof. Edward Chie'ro, leader of the expedition, it was almost indistinguishable from the surrounding clay fill. Five weeks of careful drying and baking at a high temperature were . necessary before the undesirable clay could be removed and the drawing deciphered. - At Yale University is found ()ne of the largest collections of Babylonian literature in, the world, dating back to the earliest known periods in history. Only a short time ago, a candidate for the Doetor of Philosophy degree was rummaging among the tablets on lile and selected some 120 of them as esspecially interesting, yet hard to decipher. The suhstance of these furnished subjects of discussion at Yale clubs for: some time. It turned out that they were all written by women..

Most of them were letters. Not having the request "tuppi kil" (please save), they .found their way to ancient dead letter offices— rubbish piles. There were business letters, thank-you notes, proposals, dunning letters and tender billets doux that would do credit to any modern deopatra or Don Juan. For example, Gimil Marduk, in a letter to his sweetheart, Bibea, writps : "May the gods Shamash and Marduk permit thee to live forever for my sake. I write to inquire concerning thy health. Tell me how thou art. I went to Babylon, but did not see thee. I was greatly disappointed. Send the reason for thy leaving, that I may be happy. Do -come in the month" Marchesvan. Keep: well always for mv 6ake.,, m m » There were gold diggers, too. "Tarishmatum writes to Kubutum begging him to send her a shekel of silver: She has written . ten times and he hasn't answered. She hasn't a singlo measure of meal. In the name of Po-bil-sag" (a popular gjod), "would he send her one shekel." Evidently Kubutum wasn't a literate person, for in a postscript addressed to a third person who would read his mail to him, Tarish-matum urges him with endearing words to use his iniiuence to the end that money would he sent. Naturally, the solid literature produced by the Babylonians could hardly oe tied up in pink ribbon. A bushol basket would be much more appropriate. Evidence also indicates that few persons would waste the stamps necessaXy to send isuch . .weighty . matter through the mails. Mnch of the reading matter, then as now, was nothing more' attractive than appeals for 'charity and advertisements. One finds many such letters, still unopened, in. their original clay env-e-lopes. But of that other nuisance so burdensome to American post offices a.few months ago, the "round robin," or "chain letter,''' epigraphers have found no trace among either Babylonians or Egyptians. By the time nine times nine people had copied it nine times, postmen would have needed fcrucks and trailers for delivery. It looks as though this is the only correspondence absent in RFD 2000 B.O.