The systematic methods adopted in this library are also remarkable. Doubtless Sargon’s librarians introduced ideas of their own in the arrangement of this literature, but they had evidently adopted methods long in use in the more ancient libraries of Erech, Larsa and other cities of southern Mesopotamia. As instances of this literary undertaking the great work on astronomy and astrology called “The Observations of Bel,” which long ages after Berosius translated into Greek, was by order of Sargon compiled for his library. It consisted of seventy-two books, and a certain place in the library was set apart for this. These tablets were arranged and numbered according to the subject. A catalogue of these was also prepared, giving the number of the tablets as arranged under the subjects.
Other literary documents from this collection are The Story of Creation, in prose and verse; The Deluge Story, and Adventures of Izdubar, the famous Nimrod of Hebrew tradition.
When the student wished for any special tablet or subject, he was required by the librarian to consult the catalogue and to write down the number of the book he wished for, when it would be given to him. The librarian of to-day, to whom the same system and methods are so familiar, can scarcely claim these as modern improvements, but may well exclaim with the philosopher of old, “there is no new thing under the sun.”
Another great work, prepared for the library of Sargon, of Agade, was a theological collection in three books and two hundred tablets. This consisted of magical texts and incantations from the primitive religion of Turanian Chaldea, which still held power and influence as magic and divination. It included also the literature of the later development of the Sumerians into higher spiritual conceptions.
This literature of the later period comprised hymns of praise, invocations to the gods, and penitential psalms which in spirit and form bear a remarkable resemblance to the confessions of the later Hebrew psalmist.
Perhaps we may trace in this a contact with Semitic thought and influence long before the Semites appear as an established people in the land.
There are two distinct periods in the religious development of the Turanians of Chaldea, the era of Shamanism or demon worship, and later Sabeanism, the deification of the planets and the stars or the benign influence of nature.
As early as Gudea they had entered upon this later period of religious development, and now, under the influence of Sargon occurred a blending of these systems with Semitic conceptions which continued the established religion of the Assyrians and Babylonians to the latest times.
The latent tendencies of the Semitic mind seem to have been towards monotheism. While this did not prevent their recognition of the gods of the nations with whom they came in contact, and their frequent adoption of these as objects of worship, this tendency is yet manifest.
With the later Assyrians, they united in the adoption of their national deity, Asshur; with the Moabites, in Chemosh; with the Hebrews, in Elohim, or Yahveh; and with them all, the Supreme One who united in Himself the great attributes of all the gods, the Creator of all things, the Arbiter of all human events.