23d October 1876
Dear Sir,
I will bear in mind what you say about a photographer <1> but do not know if it will be possible to do so with the Funds at my disposal the Excavations cost £100 per month without a photographer. There is no English Assyriologist available to send out, my assistant is wanted here and none of the others are advanced enough to employ as copyists in Mesopotamia Rassam <2> knows nothing about cuneiform which in my opinion is as well. I have told him what is required is that all the fragments should be sent here The 2000 tablets or fragments must be close at hand, they were at Suez about ten days ago The other day I purchased about 30 contracts Tablets of one Shemtob a Jew of Baghdad now here. Two of them are dated in the 11h year of Nabonides <3> which Throws the usual chronology out of gear. Dr Delitsczh <4> and <sic> very hard at work on the syllabaries.
Believe me Yours very truly
S Birch
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 01239.
2. Hormuzd Rassam (1826–1910), Turkish archaeologist. He had just been appointed by the trustees of the British Museum to continue the excavations at Niniveh.
3. The Nabonides Chronicle, which describes the fall of Babylon, named after Nabonides of Babylon, and covers the period 609–539 BC.
4. Prof Conrad Gerhard Friederich Delitzsch (1850–1922), German biblical scholar.