Killyleagh Co Down
8th Sept 1856
Dear Sir,
I received your letter this morning I am not quite sure of the title of Grotefend's work about which you ask; my copy being imperfect.
It is (I believe) "Bemerkungen (or Beiträgen) zur Inschrift eines Thongefässes mit babylonischer Keilschrift" <1>& is a thin quarto of much the same size as the one with a similar title (substituting ninivitischer for babylonischer) which contains Bellino's inscriptions. Both are to be had separately; As well as in the Göttingen Papers, where they were published. I think the price of each is 2s/ּ
As to [hebrew] I have slightly modified my views since I wrote what appears in p. 45 of my last paper. I think the Assyrians paid more attention to the ע than the Babylonians did, and that they would not be likely to omit it in a proper name.
You take Sthamar for one word the name of the king of Saba. Is not, however, the true reading Idah amara Tsabahaya "Idah, Amir of Saba", - amara representing the Arabic [arabic characters]? If we suppose the words which I have divided to form one name (which is certainly very possible, & only for its length, the more [illegible] suggestion of the two) it must, I think, be read Idahamara in 5 syllables. The first consonant is more probably d than anything else; but might be t, or b. After this we must have a [arabic characters] or [arabic character] before the m Ithamar appears to me quite inadmissible; & I really feel jealous of the admission of scriptural names where they are not identical with those of the inscriptions. It tends to discredit the real coincidences which are so numerous
Believe me dear Sir Yours vy Truly
Edw. Hincks
[envelope:]
H. Fox Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. 'Observations on the Babylonian cuneiform inscription on a clay vessel' - the publication was Georg Friedrich Grotefend, Erläuterung zweier Ausschreiben des Königes Nebukadnezar in einfacher babylonischer Keilschrift mit einigen Zugabenp (Göttingen, 1856).