Page:Biblical Libraries (Richardson).djvu/126

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BIBLICAL LIBRARIES

The temple treasury library in the east treasury although less significant than the other is curiously interesting. The tablets were found in three rooms (10-12) and below the level of the floor, rather toward the east side of the rooms and more in eleven than either ten or twelve. Eleven is connected with twelve but not with ten. There is place for a staircase near by. The building was destroyed by fire. Altogether this seems to point to the archive having been kept on the second story above eleven and the tablets chiefly at the east end, so that when the buildings burned they fell as they were found. The situation does not fit the hypothesis of bringing in debris as a sort of macadam flooring for which there is analogy.

From these two archives there were recovered several thousands of tablets containing letters, treaties with Egypt, with Amorite and other princes, etc. A most

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