Middle Hill
21 Aug 56
My dear Sir
I have had 4 Photographs of the Stone Fragment from Babylon taken, & I beg your acceptance of one. It is too small, I fear, for you to decipher easily, but if copied on a larger scale you may perhaps be able to decipher some words.
I shewed it to Rawlinson but he could make nothing of it. He told me that the Barrel or Urn had been copied before it came into my possession, & therefore he did not want to see that. The other fragment, which I have, he has not seen.
The Excavations at Kerteh were particularly interesting to me, because the Greek Character of Å found there, & written thus [cuneiform], give a positive Authority to my MSS of Homer & Hesiod in Rolls.
I forget whether you said you had seen Micali’s Etruscan Monuments. If you did, of course you noticed the Plate of Cuneiform Inscriptions. Query; If they were found in Etruria, how did they come there? Were the Etrurians a Colony migrating from Babylon or Media or Assyria?
Hoping you arrived safely to your Friends
Believe me Very truly your’s
Thos Phillipps
[author's letterbook copy in TP's hand – Bodleian Library:]
To Wm Henry Fox Talbot Esqr Lacock Abbey Chippenham Wilts
MH 21 Aug 56
My dear Sir
I had 4 Photographs of the Stone Fragment from Babylon taken, & I beg your acceptance of one. It is too small I fear for you to decipher easily, but if copied on a larger scale you may be able to decipher some words.
I shewed it to Sir Henry Rawlinson but he could make nothing of it. He told me that the Barrel or Urn had been copied before it came into my possession, & therefore he did not want to see that. The other fragment which I have, he has not seen.
The Excavations at Kerteh were particularly interesting to me, because the Greek Character of Å found there, & written thus [cuneiform], give a positive authority to my MSS of Homer & Hesiod in Rolls.
I forget whether you said you had seen Micalis' Etruscan Monuments. If you did, of course you noticed the Plate of Cuneiform Inscriptions. Query; If they were found in Etruria, how did they come there? Were the Etrurians a Colony migrating from Babylon or Media or Assyria? – Hoping you arrived safely to your Friends
Believe me Very truly yours
TP