Leonard William King

Leonard William King, FSA, FRGS (8 December 1869 – 20 August 1919) was an English archaeologist, Assyriologist, translator, and professor of Assyrian and Babylonian archaeology at King's College London. He was Assistant Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum from 1913 until his death.

Quotes

  • The great religious works of the Babylonians are known to us from documents which do not date from an earlier period than the seventh century b.c. In the palaces that were unearthed at Kuyunjik, the site of Nineveh, there were found, scattered throusjh the mounds of earth, thousands of clay tablets written in the Assyrian character, and in many cases with colophons bearing the name of Ashur-bani-pal and the statement that he had caused them to be included in his library. This monarch reigned from b.c. 669 to about b.c. 625, and, though one of the last kings to occupy the Assyrian throne, he made strenuous efforts to preserve the ancient literature of Babylonia and Assyria. His scribes visited specially the ancient cities and temples in the south, and made copies of literary compositions of all classes which they found there. These they collected and arranged in his palace at Nineveh, and it is from them that the greater part of our knowledge of Babylonian mythology and religion is derived.
  • The great Assyrian poem, or series of legends, which narrates the story of the Creation of the world and of man, was termed by the Assyrians and Babylonians Enuma elif, “When in the height,” from the two opening words of the text. The poem consisted of some nine hundred and ninety-four lines, and was divided into seven sections, each of which was inscribed upon a separate Tablet. ... The poem embodies the beliefs of the Babylonians and Assyrians concerning the origin of the universe; it describes the coming forth of the gods from chaos, and tells the story of how the forces of disorder, represented by the primeval water-gods Apsū and Tiamat, were overthrown by Ea and Marduk respectively, and how Marduk, after completing the triumph of the gods over chaos, proceeded to create the world and man. The poem is known to us from portions of several Assyrian and late-Babylonian copies of the work, and from extracts from it written out upon the so-called “practice-tablets,” or students’ exercises, by pupils of the Babylonian scribes. The Assyrian copies of the work are from the great library which was founded at Nineveh by Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria from b.c. 668 to about b.c. 626; the Babylonian copies and extracts were inscribed during the period of the kings of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods; and one copy of the Seventh Tablet may probably be assigned to as late a date as the period of the Arsacidae. All the tablets and fragments, which have hitherto been identified as inscribed with portions of the text of the poem, are preserved in the British Museum.
    From the time of the first discovery of fragments considerable attention has been directed towards them, for not only are the legends themselves the principal source of our knowledge of the Babylonian cosmogony, but passages in them bear a striking resemblance to the cognate narratives in the Book of Genesis concerning the creation of the world.
  • The greater part of our knowledge of early Sumerian history has been derived from the wonderfully successful series of excavations carried out by the late M. de Sarzec at Tello, ... between 1877 and 1900, and continued for some months in 1903 by Captain (now Commandant) Gaston Cros. These mounds mark the site of the city of Shirpurla or Lagash, and lie a few miles to the north-east of the modern village of Shatra, to the east of the Shatt el-Hai, and about an hour’s ride from the present course of the stream. It is evident, however, that the city was built upon the stream, which at this point may originally have formed a branch of the Euphrates, ... for there are traces of a dry channel upon its western side.
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