Dr Hincks
Lacock 24 April 1857
Dr Sir
I am particularly obliged to you for the extract of Several lines of the Birs Nimrud inscriptn which you sent me the other day. The passage seems to refer entirely to alterations & improvements made by Nebuchadnezzar & his father whom he calls “the late King” or “the former King” in a certain building dedicated to the 7 planets at Borsippa of which we doubtless see the ruins in the Birs Nimrud; and there is nothing in the context to lend to the supposition that the writer wishes to refer to a period of remote antiquity 2940 years before his time. Dr Opperts opinion is then I think untenable.
In translating <cuneiform> as lapis lazuli I followed Rawlinson. I have myself found no evidence bearing on the matter. But I hardly think your transln of “alabaster” can be right, because alabaster is a common stone found in all countries whereas this was so rare, that it was a distinctive epithet of the land of Bikni, that it produced this kind of precious stone.
When I next return to town I will have great pleasure in showing you draught memorial to some of the Trustees – You make such a very modest request of them, that I think they cannot do otherwise than accede to it, and I hope they will go further, and publish your translation. I am sure they ought to do so in common justice.
About a month ago I presented to the Royal Asiatic Socy a translation of the octagon of Tiglath Pileser I contained in a sealed packet, wch I requested might not be opened until Sir H. Rawlinson had publishd his translation; I fully explained the motive of this, namely that in case our independently made translations should be found to agree in the main, as I confidently hoped would be the case, that then such agreement would put an end to the doubts wch still exist in the minds of many, even learned, scholars as to the reality of these alleged discoveries – The Society accepted the deposit – It so happened that Dr Oppert was present at this sitting, and he immediately asked leave to deposit with the Society an independent Translation of his own – The Society, of course, assented to this being done – Under these circumstances Rawlinson has resolved to finish and present his own transln speedily, so that the comparison may be made during the present Session of the Society. Mr Norris informs me moreover that the Society have invited you also to send a translation. I hope you will be induced to do so, and thus furnish such an amount of concurring testimony as shall be an unanswerable Argument for the truth of the system. I may add that Rawlinson is going to adopt the same form of translation that I have done, for the sake of Easier comparison. I will therefore describe it. Mine is in 2 parts: the 1st part is a continuous transln of the whole into English. the 2d part is a transcription of each line into the Roman character, with an English literal tranlsn placed opposite.
Yours truly
H. F. Talbot
P.S. Since writing the above, I have heard from Mr Norris that you have accepted the Society’s invitation to send a transln wch I am very glad to hear.