from Babylonian Tablets,
etc., in the British Museum_.(48)

Of the time of Marduk-shum-iddin, B.C. 853-833, we have a black
boundary-stone, published by Dr. F. E. Peiser, in _Keilschriftliche
Acten-stuecke_, No. 1. It is dated in the twenty-eighth year of the reign
of Nabu-aplu-iddina, _circa_ B.C. 858, and the eleventh year of
Marduk-shum-iddina, _circa_ B.C. 842. It rehearses the contents of two or
more deeds by which a certain Kidinu came into possession of property in
the city of Dilbat.

(M38) The Cappadocian tablets are still somewhat of a problem. The first
notice of them was given by Dr. T. G. Pinches.(49) According to the
dealer's account one acquired by the British Museum had come from
Cappadocia. The script was then quite unfamiliar and it was thought that
they were written in a language neither Semitic nor Akkadian. Various
attempts, which are best forgotten, were made to transcribe and translate
them under complete misapprehension of the readings of the characters. But
in 1891 Golenischeff published twenty-four tablets of the same stamp,
which he had acquired at Kaisarieh. His copies were splendidly done for
one who could make out very little meaning. But he showed that many words
were Assyrian and read many names. Professor Delitzsch(50) made a most
valuable study of them, and laid the foundation for their thorough
understanding. Professor P. Jensen(51) added greatly to our knowledge of
their reading and interpretation. Dr. F. E. Peiser then(52) gave a
transcription and translation of nine texts of contracts.

They are now recognized to be purely Semitic. They must have been written
in some place where Assyrian influence was all-powerful. There are many
names compounded of Ashur. They are dated by eponyms as in Assyria. The
discovery of many more of them at Boghaz Keui, Kara Eyuk, and elsewhere
published by Professor V. Scheil in the _Memoires de la Mission en
Cappadoce par Ernest Chantre_, and commented on by M. Boissier,(53) make
it certain that they are from this region.

If subject to Assyria, their date may be before the earliest eponyms whose
date is known from the Canon lists. They may be contemporary with the very
earliest kings of Assyria. But it is not impossible that the eponyms
referred to were local only and not Assyrian in origin. Dr. Peiser put
them after the First Dynasty of Babylon, but before the Third Dynasty.

They are full of unusual forms of words and have a phraseology of their