LETTER-WRITING 5,000 YEARS AGO.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 28, 5 April 1907, Page 2

LETTER-WRITING 5,000 YEARS AGO.

While Babylonian clay tablets of various forms and sizes have been known and collected by the large European museums for fully half a century, it is only in recent years that tablets of an exceedingly nn- . cient date have been found in sufficient numbers to reveal their origin and early development. Of the 2,000 tablets discovered in the Babylonian ruin Bismya by the expedition of the University of Chicago, a large proportion of them date from the .fifth millennium, 8.C., and present such a j variety of shapes and sizes that their i origin has for the first time been ascertained. j The first Babylonian tablets, and j therefore,the oldest written documents in the world, were of clay. I The original shape was round like a j ball, and in size it resembled a small , orange. The early scribe drew upon the soft clay the rough pictures by which his language was expressed, and then placed the written document in the sun to dry. As writing became 1 icri; common, the tablet lost its sphirical shape, and the inscription was confined to its flattened sides. A i number of such tablets, almost sph<>r- ! ical, came from Bismya. As the ccn- : furies passed, the sides became flatter, corners began to appear in the circular edges, and by 4000 B.C. the tablet suggested the square into which it soon developed. Side by side with the evolution of the square tablet from the clay ball, a similar tablet, was developed from the early building-brick. The first Babylonian brick was rectangular ; its sides were plano-convex—plane on the bottom where it rested upon the ground to dry, and convex on the ; surface, because while drying the. j edges ran down the sides. To the I first tablets which were not spherical or nearly so, this plano-convex form was imparted, but the convex side became less convex, and by 3800 B.C both sides were nearly alike, tablets which developed from the clay ball. The tablet, square or nearly so, retained its shape for a considerable period ; but if the inscription to be recorded upon it was long, the length of the tablet, was increased, while its width remained practically the same. This elongated form of the square tablet thus became the standard for all of the later ages of the Babylonian empire. In size the tablets vary exceedingly While some measure hardly more than half an inch in length, others are fully 18 inches long and a foot wide, yet the average of the hundreds of thousands of Babylonian tablets which are now in the museums of Europe may be not far from 3in. in length and half as wide. Although the rectangular form of the clay document, prevailed, other shapes were adopted for special purposes as occasion demanded. The schoolboy's exercise tablet was invaribly round, and the clay labels which were attached to merchandise were egg-shaped and their longer diameters were pierced with a hole for the string. An exceedingly interesting -form of tablet was that given to the Babalonian letter of 2400 B.C. and later. The clay of the letter was moulded and inscribed, as were the ordinary business documents ; and when finished a thin coating of clay was wrapped about it, serving as an envelope to protect the writing within, or to conceal it from the eyes of the curious. The envelope then stamped with the seal of the writer, or sometimes engraved with a few words, and the letter, with its envelope was placed in the sun to dry or in the furnace for baking. It was then ready for delivery.