BABYLONIAN ANTIQUITIES.

Temuka Leader, Volume I, Issue 86, 12 October 1878, Page 3

BABYLONIAN ANTIQUITIES.

The Department of Oriental Antiqui ties of the British Museum has just obtained, by purchase, some interesting cuneiform inscriptions in a series of small contract tablets, dated in the reign of Mithridates 11., or Artabanus 11., one of the Arsacian Kings of Babylon. These tablets are of very great importance, on account of their being dated with the dual system of both Seleucida; and the Arsacian auras, and thus fixing by indisputable authority the starting points of both these epochs. Of the seven tablets obtained, there are three that bear the double calculation of dates—the earliest being “ Month JScbat (11) 18th day in the 154th year—which equals the 218th year of Arsaka—King of Kings.” There are also in the series two in the 155th or 219th year of Arsaka, and four which bear only the date of the years reckoned from the revolt of the Seleucida?. The revolt of the Seleucida? took place in n. c. 312, and by these tablets we find that 84 years after, or in b. c. 228, that the revolt of Arsaces took place, and the Arsacian epoch commenced. The lesser date, therefore, 155th year, will give us the year n. c. 93, which falls in the reign of Artabanus IT., or Mithridates 11., the sixth of the Arsaces. These tablets, wdth the exception of one dated in the reign of Pecorus, which is in the museum at Zurich, are the latest examples of cuneiform writing known. They are contract tables relating to loans of money, and their material is very coarse and the writing careless. It is also to be noticed that, with very low exceptions, the contracting parties arc designated by Semitic names, indicating, apparently, that this mode of record was confined almost solely to the conservative Semitic merchant of Babylon.