s diminished, and a
certain amount of inaccuracy, especially in details and in the reading
of proper names,[8] becomes almost inevitable. Lastly, it is to be noted
that the list of Babylonian kings found in the famous astronomical work
of Claudius Ptolemaeus, valuable as it is for historical purposes, has
no connection with the religion of the Babylonians.

II.

The sum total of the information thus to be gleaned from ancient sources
for an elucidation of the Babylonian-Assyrian religion is exceedingly
meagre, sufficing scarcely for determining its most general traits.
Moreover, what there is, requires for the most part a control through
confirmatory evidence which we seek for in vain, in biblical or
classical literature.

This control has now been furnished by the remarkable discoveries made
beneath the soil of Mesopotamia since the year 1842. In that year the
French consul at Mosul, P. E. Botta, aided by a government grant, began
a series of excavations in the mounds that line the banks of the Tigris
opposite Mosul. The artificial character of these mounds had for some
time been recognized. Botta's first finds of a pronounced character were
made at a village known as Khorsabad, which stood on one of the mounds
in question. Here, at a short distance below the surface, he came across
the remains of what proved to be a palace of enormous extent. The
sculptures that were found in this palace--enormous bulls and lions
resting on backgrounds of limestone, and guarding the approaches to the
palace chambers, or long rows of carvings in high relief lining the
palace walls, and depicting war scenes, building operations, and
religious processions--left no doubt as to their belonging to an ancient
period of history. The written characters found on these monuments
substantiated the view that Botta had come across an edifice of the
Assyrian empire, while subsequent researches furnished the important
detail that the excavated edifice lay in a suburb of the ancient capitol
of Assyria, Nineveh, the exact site of which was directly opposite
Mosul. Botta's labors extended over a period of two years; by the end of
which time, having laid bare the greater part of the palace, he had
gathered a large mass of material including many smaller
objects--pottery, furniture, jewelry, and ornaments--that might serve
for the study of Assyrian art and of Assyrian antiquities, while the
written records accompanying the monuments placed for the fi