Bournemouth
Oct. 24. 1876
Dear Sir
As I see by your letter that Dr Delitzsch <1> is still in London may I ask you to remember me kindly to him. I should be glad to know if the “Syllabaries” <2> on which he is employed at present, existed in the Museum when I had the pleasure of meeting him there 12 months ago, or have been obtained since? because I thought we had pretty well exhausted all the syllabaries that Mr Smith <3> brought home in 1875 – I make frequent use of Dr Delitzsch’s excellent publication Assyrische lesestüke <4> has any second part of it been published? or soon to be expected?
The usual chronology has been so often “thrown out of gear” that the discovery of your contract tablet dated in the 11th year of Nabonidus <5> will not damage it much more. But the more facts that are collected together the better, and the difficulties will doubtless ultimately be surmounted.
In the instructions to Rassam <6> I think it would be well to suggest that small inscribed terra cotta fragments found lying near together, should be packed up together if possibly may be.
Once they are separated, & especially if they are small, it may require the Sagacity of a Smith to fit them together again.
The photographs of tablets <7> in the Museum, done several years ago, of which the Trustees kindly ordered a copy to be sent me, I have found very useful – Even those which were carelessly executed (somewhat out of focus &c &c &c) are yet good enough for an Assyriologist to be able to determine the general meaning viz. whether Historical, grammatical or otherwise. If you employ a photographer in Mesopotamia he should photograph the tablets twice the natural size because they are then so much more legible. It is perfectly easy to enlarge them in this manner.
I trouble you with these hints because I feel so much interested in the success of this renewed attempt at excavation
Believe me Yours very Truly
H. F. Talbot
Dr Birch,B. Musm
Notes:
1. Prof Conrad Gerhard Friederich Delitzsch (1850–1922), German biblical scholar.
2. Delitzsch had previously worked on Assyrian Syllabaries. [See Doc. No: 03662]. In 1875, WHFT had published ‘Four new Syllabaries’ in Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (London). [See Doc. No: 04150].
3. George Smith (1840–1876), Assyriologist.
4. Probably Assyrische Lesestücke, nach den Originalen theils revidirt theils zum ersten Male herausgegeben und durch Schrifttafeln eingeleitet von Dr F. Delitzsch (Leipzig: 1876).
5. King of Babylonia from 556 until 539 BC. [See Doc. No: 04364, and Doc. No: 05374].
6. Hormuzd Rassam (1826–1910), Turkish archaeologist
7. In 1872, Stephen Thompson published a volume of Photographs of the Collection in the British Museum. It is clear from this letter that WHFT suggested to Dr Samuel Birch (1813–1885), linguist, Keeper at the British Museum, London to use photographers instead of copyists in the excavations in Mesopotamia to take copies of inscriptions. [See Doc. No: 00367].