well as the important events of their time, and it may therefore, be fairly presumed that they had some mode of communicating their ideas to succeeding generations, before the invention of alphabetical writing. The scanty traditions recorded concerning the Antediluvians, do not enable us to come to any determination relative to their proficiency in communicating the transactions of their time; whether, therefore, they employed stamps of any kind, or any means whatever of transmitting knowledge, except by oral tradition, we have neither history nor relics to inform us, but that period which immediately followed the deluge, and which some chronologers have termed the second age of the world, afford convincing proofs of the art of forming impressions, being then practised, and most probably with a view to propagate science — to inculcate special facts — and as a general means of preserving to posterity certain useful memorials.
Purposes such as these it is reasonable to conclude were contemplated by the ancient Chaldeans, when they stamped or printed their tiles or bricks, with various figures, hieroglyphics, or inscriptions. In some instances, these ancient specimens seem to have been sun-baked, yet for the most part they appear kiln-burnt, to a surprising degree of hardness, even to partial vitrification. Of such materials was built the original City and celebrated tower of Babylon, and although a period of 4,000 years has rolled away since the construction of the superb metropolis, whose name they bear, still, even to the present day, do the Babylonian bricks, which have supplied the antiquary and orientalist, continue to be found. It is nevertheless made probable, that the Babylonians were accustomed to imprint on their bricks, allusions to astronomical phenomena, having some signal astronomical import. Particular configurations of the heavens, which distinguished the several seasons, as they related to the business of the husbandman, might also be registered in this way, to serve as a sort of calendar, and some impressions are imagined to contain historical details, relative to the founders of those stupendous structures, originally composed of the bricks in question; for every funace-baked-brick, found amidst these vast ruins, is imprinted with some emblematical design.
In the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, there is an article composed of a like substance to that of which the bricks just mentioned are manufactured, it is impressed with characters, corresponding with those on the building bricks, except that they are much smaller, and may be considered more beautifully executed. (See Engraving.)
The shape, however, of this curiosity, is very unlike the bricks before alluded to. It is about seven inches high, and three inches in diameter at each end, increasing gradually in circumference from the ends towards the middle, like a wine cask. The greatest possible care is taken of this precious relic of antiquity, now probably not less than 4,000 years old. This rare piece of ancient learning and art, together with three bricks before described, was presented to the college by General Sir John Malcolm. It is mounted on a marble pedestal, covered with a glass-case secured by an iron bracket; and so contrived, that the curious inspector may cause it to revolve upon its marble base.
All attempts to explain the signification of these characters of antiquity, have as yet, been vainly exerted by the most skilful orientalists; nor has it been satisfactorily determined whether they really are alphabetic characters, as the European, — syllabic, as many known Orientals — hieroglyphic, as the Egyptian — or arbitrary signs, expressive of complete ideas, as the Chinese.
