The tablets dealing with the Sumerian and Semitic languages together, and the translations from one to the other, we have noted already. The mathematical tablets are multiplication tables, lists of multiples of measures, tables of squares and cubes, and plans with measurements along the sides, which show the practical use of the science. The astronomical records were already tabulated in the time of the early Semitic Empire, Sargon having compiled for his library a work in seventy-two books, the title of which is rendered “The Observations of Bel.” The purpose of this was astrological, like the great mass of short tablets reporting observations of a later date. But the inquiries involved a considerable familiarity with astronomical movements, and a mass of records which became of great value to the student. The astronomical tablets of the Seleucid period are of special value, as they often contain valuable historical matter.

A KING’S LETTER OF 1400 B.C.

A clay tablet letter from Tushratta, King of Mitani, to Amenophis III., King of Egypt, announcing the despatch of valuable gifts and begging Amenophis to send him a large quantity of gold as payment for expenses incurred by his grandfather in sending gifts to the King of Egypt, and also as a gift in return for his daughter, a princess of Mitani, whom Amenophis had married.

LAW. In the domain of law the Babylonian had early formulated a code from the actual working of decisions. Case-made law was his basis, as in most countries, and abstracts of important cases were carefully preserved as precedents. No torture was used upon witnesses, and ample investigation of the right of a case seems to have been usual, with full cross-examination. High penalties were stipulated for the infringement of sales or contracts. The status of women was equal to that of men in the Sumerian, but became inferior in the Semitic law. Slavery was rather an assignation of labour than a control of the person, as a slave family could not be separated. Slaves could hold property, own other slaves, give witness, and were sometimes well educated. The family union was strong, as inherited land could not be sold without assent of relatives, and boys and girls alike inherited intestate property.

The detail of the laws form a long study, but we may here note the main sections of the great code of Hammurabi, showing the scope of the laws, and stating the number of enactments.

Thus the whole scope of an agricultural and commercial community was well safeguarded, and little doubt left as to general principles and penalties. All this must have been the product of innumerable cases and difficulties for two or three thousand years, before such a complete code was set up.

HISTORY IN MYTHOLOGY. The religion has usually occupied a large part of the attention and interest given to Mesopotamia; it is comparatively well known owing to the quantity of documents and representations. Here we need only mention such points as bear on the general civilisation. We have already noticed how the purely Sumerian Shamanism, or belief in the spirit of every object, which needed to be appeased, had been tinctured by the worship of personal deities of the Semitic neighbours, and how this influence was shown by borrowing the Semitic beard for the gods and flounced robe for the goddesses, and occasionally for the gods. Thus the Semite was the missionary of theism as against animism.