Babylonian Story of the Deluge | Page 2

H. Rassam, continued the
excavation of the "South West Palace" at Kuyûnjik. In one part of the
building he found two small chambers, opening into each other, which
he called the "chamber of records," or "the house of the rolls." He gave
them this name because "to the height of a foot or more from the floor
they were entirely filled" with inscribed baked clay tablets and
fragments of tablets. Some tablets were complete, but by far the larger
number of them had been broken up into many fragments, probably by
the falling in of the roof and upper parts of the walls of the buildings
when the city was pillaged and set on fire by the Medes and
Babylonians. The tablets that were kept in these chambers numbered

many thousands. Besides those that were found in them by Layard,
large numbers have been dug out all along the corridor which passed
the chambers and led to the river, and a considerable number were
kicked on to the river front by the feet of the terrified fugitives from the
palace when it was set on fire. The tablets found by Layard were of
different sizes; the largest were rectangular, flat on one side and convex
on the other, and measured about 9 ins. by 6 1/2 ins., and the smallest
were about an inch square. The importance of this "find" was not
sufficiently recognized at the time, for the tablets, which were thought
to be decorated pottery, were thrown into baskets and sent down the
river loose on rafts to Basrah, whence they were despatched to England
on a British man o' war. During their transport from Nineveh to
England they suffered more damage from want of packing than they
had suffered from the wrath of the Medes. Among the complete tablets
that were found in the two chambers several had colophons inscribed or
scratched upon them, and when these were deciphered by Rawlinson,
Hincks and Oppert a few years later, it became evident that they had
formed part of the library of the Temple of Nebo at Nineveh.
Nebo and His Library at Nineveh.
Nothing is known of the early history of the Library [1] of the Temple
of Nebo at Nineveh. There is little doubt that it was in existence in the
reign of Sargon II, and it was probably founded at the instance of the
priests of Nebo who were settled at Nimrûd (the Calah of Gen. X, 11),
about 20 miles downstream of Nineveh. Authorities differ in their
estimate of the attributes that were assigned to Nebo ( Nabu) in
Pre-Babylonian times, and cannot decide whether he was a water-god,
or a fire-god, or a corn-god, but he was undoubtedly associated with
Marduk, either as his son or as a fellow-god. It is certain that as early as
B.C. 2000 he was regarded as one of the "Great Gods" of Babylonia,
and about 1,200 years later his cult was general in Assyria. He had a
temple at Nimrûd in the ninth century B.C., and King Adad-Nirari (B.C.
811-783) set up six statues in it to the honour of the god; two of these
statues are now in the British Museum. Under the last Assyrian Empire
he was believed to possess the wisdom of all the gods, and to be the
"All-wise" and "All-knowing." He was the inventor of all the arts and
sciences, and the source of inspiration in wise and learned men, and he
was the divine scribe and past master of all the mysteries connected

with literature and the art of writing (, duppu sharrute). Ashur-bani-pal
addresses him as "Nebo, the beneficent son, the director of the hosts of
heaven and of earth, holder of the tablet of knowledge, bearer of the
writing-reed of destiny, lengthener of days, vivifier of the dead,
stablisher of light for the men who are troubled" (see tablet R.M. 132)
In the reign of Sargon II the temple library of Nebo was probably
housed in some building at or near Nabi Yûnis, or, as George Smith
thought, near Kuyûnjik, or at Kuyûnjik itself. As Layard found the
remains of Nebo's Library in the South West Palace, it is probable that
Ashur-bani-pal built a new temple to Nebo there and had the library
transferred to it. Nebo's temple at Nineveh bore the same name as his
very ancient temple at Borsippa (the modern Birs-i-Nimrûd), viz.,
"E-Zida."
Discovery of the Palace Library of Ashur-bani-pal.
In the spring of 1852 Layard was obliged to close his excavations for
want of funds, and he returned to England with Rassam, leaving all the
northern half of the great mound of Kuyûnjik unexcavated. He resigned
his position as Director of Excavations to the Trustees of the British
Museum, and Colonel (later Sir) H. C. Rawlinson, Consul-General of