The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh
By E. A. Wallis Budge



The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from
Nineveh.

By E. A. Wallis Budge.


The Discovery of the Tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and Smith.

In 1845-47 and again in 1849-51 Mr. (later Sir) A. H. Layard carried
out a series of excavations among the ruins of the ancient city of
Nineveh, "that great city, wherein are more than sixteen thousand
persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left;
and also much cattle" (Jonah iv, II). Its ruins lie on the left or
east bank of the Tigris, exactly opposite the town of Al-Mawsil,
or Mфsul, which was founded by the Sassanians and marks the site
of Western Nineveh. At first Layard thought that these ruins were
not those of Nineveh, which he placed at Nimrыd, about 20 miles
downstream, but of one of the other cities that were builded by
Asshur (see Gen. x, 11, 12). Thanks, however, to Christian, Roman and
Muhammadan tradition, there is no room for doubt about it, and the
site of Nineveh has always been known. The fortress which the Arabs
built there in the seventh century was known as "Kal'at-Nоnawо, i.e.,
"Nineveh Castle," for many centuries, and all the Arab geographers
agree in saying that tile mounds opposite Mфsul contain the ruins
of the palaces and walls of Nineveh. And few of them fail to mention
that close by them is "Tall Nabi Yыnis," i.e., the Hill from which the
Prophet Jonah preached repentance to the inhabitants of Nineveh, that
"exceeding great city of three days' journey" (Jonah iii, 3). Local
tradition also declares that the prophet was buried in the Hill,
and his supposed tomb is shown there to this day.


The Walls and Palaces of Nineveh.

The situation of the ruins of the palaces of Nineveh is well shown
by the accompanying reproduction of the plan of the city made by
Commander Felix Jones, I.N. The remains of the older palaces built by
Sargon II (B.C. 721-705), Sennacherib (B.C. 705-681), and Esarhaddon
(B.C. 681-668) lie under the hill called Nabi Yыnis, and those of
the palaces and other buildings of Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 681-626)
under the mound which is known locally as "Tall al-'Armыshоyah," i.e.,
"The Hill of 'Armыsh," and "Kuyыnjik." The latter name is said to be
derived from two Turkish words meaning "many sheep," in allusion to
the large flocks of sheep that find their pasture on and about the
mound in the early spring. These two great mounds lie close to the
remains of the great west wall of Nineveh, which in the time of the
last Assyrian Empire was washed by the waters of the river Tigris. At
some unknown period the course of the river changed, and it is now more
than a mile distant from the city wall. The river Khausur, or Khoser,
divides the area of Nineveh into two parts, and passing close to the
southern end of Kuyыnjik empties itself into the Tigris. The ruins of
the wails of Nineveh show that the east wall was 16,000 feet long, the
north wall 7,000 feet long, the west wall 13,600 feet, and the south
wall 3,000 feet; its circuit was about 13,200 yards or 7 1/2 miles.


Discovery of the Library of the Temple of Nebo at Nineveh.

In the spring of 1852 Layard, assisted by H. Rassam, continued the
excavation of the "South West Palace" at Kuyыnjik. 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 Nimrыd (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 Nimrыd 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
Yыnis, or, as George Smith thought, near Kuyыnjik, or at Kuyыnjik
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-Nimrыd), 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 Kuyыnjik 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 Baghdвd, undertook to direct any further excavations that might
be possible to carry out later on. During the summer the Trustees
received a further grant from Parliament for excavations in Assyria,
and they dispatched Rassam to finish the exploration of Kuyыnjik,
knowing that the lease of the mound of Kuyыnjik for excavation
purposes which he had obtained from its owner had several years to
run. When Rassam arrived at Mфsul in 1853, and was collecting his men
for work, he discovered that Rawlinson, who knew nothing about the
lease of the mound which Rassam held, had given the French Consul,
M. Place, permission to excavate the northern half of the mound, i.e.,
that part of it which he was most anxious to excavate for the British
Museum. He protested, but in vain, and, finding that M. Place intended
to hold Rawlinson to his word, devoted himself to clearing out part
of the South West Palace which Layard had attacked in 1852. Meanwhile
M. Place was busily occupied with the French excavations at Khorsabad,
a mound which contained the ruins of the great palace of Sargon II,
and had no time to open up excavations at Kuyыnjik. In this way a year
passed, and as M. Place made no sign that he was going to excavate at
Kuyыnjik and Rassam's time for returning to England was drawing near,
the owner of the mound, who was anxious to get the excavations finished
so that he might again graze his flocks on the mound, urged Rassam
to get to work in spite of Rawlinson's agreement with M. Place. He
and Rassam made arrangements to excavate the northern part of the
mound clandestinely and by night, and on 20th December, 1853, the
work began. On the first night nothing of importance was found; on
the second night the men uncovered a portion of a large bas-relief;
and on the third night a huge mass of earth collapsed revealing a very
fine bas-relief, sculptured with a scene representing Ashur-bani-pal
standing in his chariot. The news of the discovery was quickly carried
to all parts of the neighbourhood, and as it was impossible to keep
the diggings secret any longer, the work was continued openly and by
day. The last-mentioned bas-relief was one of the series that lined
the chamber, which was 50 feet long and 15 feet wide, and illustrated
a royal lion hunt. [2] This series, that is to say, all of it that
the fire which destroyed the palace had spared, is now in the British
Museum (see the Gallery of the Assyrian Saloon).

Whilst the workmen were clearing out the Chamber of the Lion Hunt
they came across several heaps of inscribed baked clay tablets of "all
shapes and sizes," which resembled in general appearance the tablets
that Layard had found in the South West Palace the year before. There
were no remains with them, or near them, that suggested they had been
arranged systematically and stored in the Chamber of the Lion Hunt,
and it seems as if they had been brought there from another place and
thrown down hastily, for nearly all of them were broken into small
pieces. As some of them bore traces of having been exposed to great
heat they must have been in that chamber during the burning of the
palace. When the tablets were brought to England and were examined by
Rawlinson, it was found from the information supplied by the colophons
that they formed a part of the great Private Library of Ashur-bani-pal,
which that king kept in his palace. The tablets found by Layard in 1852
and by Rassam in 1853 form the unique and magnificent collection of
cuneiform tablets in the British Museum, which is now commonly known
as the "Kuyыnjik Collection." The approximate number of the inscribed
baked clay tablets and fragments that have come from Kuyыnjik and are
now in the British Museum is 25,073. It is impossible to over-estimate
their importance and value from religious, historical and literary
points of view; besides this, they have supplied the material for the
decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions in the Assyrian, Babylonian
and Sumerian languages, and form the foundation of the science of
Assyriology which has been built up with such conspicuous success
during the last 70 years.


Ashur-bani-pal, Book-Collector and Patron of Learning.

Ashur-bani-pal (the Asnapper of Ezra iv, 10) succeeded his father
Esarhaddon B.C. 668, and at a comparatively early period of his reign
he seems to have devoted himself to the study of the history of his
country, and to the making of a great Private Library. The tablets that
have come down to us prove not only that he was as great a benefactor
of the Library of the Temple of Nebo as any of his predecessors, but
that he was himself an educated man, a lover of learning, and a patron
of the literary folk of his day. In the introduction to his Annals as
found inscribed on his great ten-sided cylinder in the British Museum
he tells us how he took up his abode in the chambers of the palace
from which Sennacherib and Esarhaddon had ruled the Assyrian Empire,
and in describing his own education he says:

"I, Ashur-bani-pal, within it (i.e., the palace) understood the wisdom
of Nebo, all the art of writing of every craftsman, of every kind,
I made myself master of them all (i.e., of the various kinds of
writing)." [3]

These words suggest that Ashur-bani-pal could not only