READING THE MAIL OF 2000 B.C.

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 28, 3 February 1937, Page 16 (Supplement)

READING THE MAIL OF 2000 B.C.

JJECAtJSE Mesopotamian merchants

landowners, public officials ant lovers wrote, their letters on baked clay tablets 4000 years ago, all the worlu to-day may read the most intimate details of their business and private lives, writes Herbert B. Nichols in, the "Christian Science Monitor.”

Noted epigraphers from American and Oriental universities, learned scholars whose task in arehaelogical research is the deciphering of ancient documents, find that back in 2000 B.C. 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 election 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 particularly forceful could easily be changed into personally addressed missiles. Take the case of Babylonian vigilantes who tripped up His Honour the Major of Nuzi, depriving him of his office. According to documentary court refords of the ‘‘People vs. Mayor Kuslishibarbe" there were any number ot citizens who would have enjoyed tossing 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 ( oint Semitic and Fogg Art Museums expedition from Harvard to Nuzi (near Kirkuk. Mesopotamia), contain ull the known details of testimony against him. Apparently the case was a long-jrawn-out offair, for, according to Dr. Ephraim A. Speiser, director of tbo American Schools ot Oriental Research, Baghdad, the evidence was presented oefore several judges before sentence was passed.

If one depends upon the story in clay, there was even, at this early date, a close partnership between public officials and crime, a situation not corrected until an enraged citizenry, aroused by righteous indignation,

BAKED CLAY TABLETS

Archaeologists’ Researches

orought 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 kidnapping!. The signature is that of a witness named

“Paya." Evidently kidnapping was a profitable sideline for the mayor, for there 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 thi milk Biipply as was evidently prac tised then. Another tablet reads: "Four sheep Kipiya took away, and from them, two he released and two he kept. Thus he said, “And why Indeec do you take your milk to be diluted with water?"

For vividness and human touch the and counter charges in this case are difficult to match anywhere They are the more impressive when one remembers that these are not copies oi 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 economic conditions of th ; s legon during the second millennium, B.C. £t the site of Nuzi alone, more than 1000 tablets were found, which give Assyriologists a very good idea ot how people acted in tbi« ancient “Main Street” town. One tablet tells how Puhislienni, llio son of Mashapu. gave 49 pebbles in an oval container-, to his shepherd boy, each pebble stand ing for a single sheep he was held accountable for. Another reveals how a mother, Sheltannayn, managed the family patrimony and disposed oi slaves and real estate in a nearby city. Probably the most interesting tablet of the whole collection gathered at Nuzi is a “map” of some large estate In the centre of the brick represen tation is a circle with an inscription tc

the left indicating that slightly more than 300 acres are shown. To the right of this circle is another inscrip tion, perhaps containing the first, which reads, “Belonging to Azala.” Whether Azala is a personal name oi the name of a community is still not clear ‘o translators.

This is believed to be the oldtst map extant. Running through the ceutie, apparently from north to south, is either a river or irrigation canal, inscribed “the fructilier. M By three ■haimtls it apparently leads to a large eody of water where broken lines indicate waves.

Unfortunately, the legend on tins "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 ot Kirkuk.

When the may was lound by the late L’rof. Edward Cbierb, 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 Vale University is found one oi the largest collections of Babylonian literature in the world, dating back- to the earliest known periods in history. Only a short time ago, u candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree was rummaging among the tablets on lilc and selected some L2O of them as esspecially interesting, yet hard to decipher. The substance 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 Cleopatra or Don Juan. For example, Gimil Marduk, in a letter to his sweetheart, Bibca, writes:

"May the gods Shamash and Marduk permit thee to live forever for my bake. I write to inquire concerning thy health. Tell me how thou art. 1 went to Babylon, but did not see thee. 1 was greatly disappointed. Send the reason for thy leaving, that 1 may be happy. Do come in the month Marchesvan. Keep well always for mv sake."

There were gold diggers, too. *‘Tarish ilia turn writes to Kubutum begging him to send her a shekel of silver. She lias written ten times and he hasn’t answered. She hasn’t a single measure of meal In the name of Pa-bil-sag" (a popular giod), “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 influence to the end that money would be

Naturally, the solid literature produced by the Babylonians could hardlv oe tied up in pink ribbon. A bushel basket would be much more appropriate. Evidence also indicates that few persons would waste the stamps necessary to send such weighty matter through the mails. Much 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 envelopes. 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 trucks and trailers for delivery. It looks as though this is the only correspondence absent in RFD 2(XX) B.C.