c n PROPOSED READING OF THE DAVENPORT TABLET. ' BY JOHN CAMPBELL, M. A. As the Hittite hieroglyphics furnished us with the key to the reading of this inscription of the mound-builders, and, as the story of the Hittite monuments is one not generally known, I deem it necessary to preface my statement with an account of Hittite decipherment. READING THE HITTITE INSCRIPTIONS. In i8i2 Burkhardt, the traveler, saw in Hamath, the Ha- math of the Bible, a stone on which were hieroglyphic char- acters unlike those of Egypt. It was not, however, till 1870 that any further attention was directed to the Hamath stone. Then Consul General Johnson and the Rev. Mr. Jes- sup discovered the four stones with Hamathite inscriptions which are now in the imperial museum at Constantinople. By them and by others copies we're taken and published in the American and English Palestine Exploration Societies' state- ments, and in Burton and Drake's Unexplored Syria. By very far the most correct copies, although these, I think, are not ab- solutely perfect, are those edited by the Rev. W. Hayes Ward, D. D., in the New York Palestine Exploration Society's state- ment. Other similar inscriptions have been found at Aleppo, at Carchemish, and at several points in Asia Minor. They have therefore received the more general name of Hittite inscriptions. My only means of judging of these inscriptions during the past summer, while distant from libraries, was through some selec- tions from them which the Rev. Professor Sayce, of Oxford, published in the transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeo- logy. Among them appeared the bi-lingual cuneiform and Hittite inscription of Tarriktimme, king of Erme, in Cilicia. The first character in the inscription, which represented . the head of an animal, and which, if alphabetic or syllabic, should, as the beginning of Tarriktimme's name, have the power of / or /a, directed me at once to the analogous Aztec head of the hare or rabbit, the phonetic value of which is to. That this was not a mere coincidence I felt assured, since I had already published papers asserting on other grounds the Hittite origin of many of our aboriginal tribes. Returning to my library and pursuing the comparative studies which the animal's head had suggested, I was at last, towards the end of October, able to determine the phonetic values of some 25 characters, chiefly through the Aztec, but also, to a certain extent by means of the Cypriote, which Professor Sayce regards as the cursive descendent of the Hittite hieroglyphic system. Thus I found that I could read all the fragments of inscriptions figured by Professor Sayce. These readings, together with an account of my pro- cess, I sent to the Canadian Institute of Toronto, the Smith- sonian Institution at Washington, the Society of Biblical ArclKPology at London, and the Institution Ethnographique at Paris. About a week ago, Dr. W. Hayes Ward, of New York, kindly lent me his own copy of the Hamath inscriptions, as I found it impossible to arrive at any definite result with the imperfect copies made by Mr. Drake. Although some difficul- ties appear, 1 have, so far, succeeded in reading the greater part of them, and in determining some points of Hittite gram- mar. While not absolutely coinciding with that of any Ameri- can language known to me, the grammar of the Hittites is in its main features the same as that of the aboriginal families which I have elsewhere asserted to be of Northern Asiatic origin. The Hittite first personal pronoun is 71c ; ca or ka is the suffixed past temporal index of the verb; ca and ne are the locative postpositions or particles; ne is the suffixed sign of the plural, and sa the similarly suffixed sign of the genitive. Thus Keti denotes a Hittite, and Ketinesa means of the Hittites. The forms Hamati ca, at Hamath, /Cala ne, in the city, are as Aztec or as Iroquois as they are Hittite. While waiting for Dr. Ward's copies of the Hamath incrip- tions I wrote to Dr. Farquharson, who had sent me copies of his invaluable articles on the Davenport mounds and inscrip- tions, asking him to procure for me an enlarged copy of the Cremation Scene, since I deemed it probable that its charac- ters were forms, of the Hittite. Thanks to the kind aid of Mr. Pratt, the curator of the Museum, Dr. Farquharson was able CO comply with my request; and, on glancing for a moment at the admirable copy sent me, all doubt of the Hittite origin of its signs vanished from my mind. Already, however, before 1 received the enlarged copy, I had detected in the inscription some five or six Corean characters, the phonetic values of which agree with their corresponding Hittite, Aztec and Mound-Builder forms. This would seem to link the Coreans with the Hittites on the one hand and the Mound-Builders on the other. THE CREMATION SCENE. The hieroglyphic par*; of this inscription consists of two divi- sions, the lower between the three lines forming an arc over the pictorial representation, the upper occupying the space above it. In the lower part it will be observed that there is a difference in the direction of the characters of the one line as compared with that of the other. This may be seen by com- paring the 6th character from the left in the upper line with the second from the right in the lower, and the nth from the left in the upper with the 12th from the right in the lower. This indicates that the Mound Builders wrote Boustrophedon fashion, and is the first proof of their Hittite origin, for, as Dr. Hayes Ward suggested, and as I have conclusively proved, the Hittites always wrote in this manner. Again, in the two lines of the upper part above the arc the continuity is broken at intervals by groups of characters arranged perpendicularly in •{ Phonetic Phonetic Phonetic Diivcnport. Hiftite. Value. Cypriote. Viihic. Corcan. Value. Aztec. I 2 3 4 //// //// r-i ? W Hl!= o ^ o O « ^/y/v 4U 7-- ■ ■/■, b\U vjd O) ■ ■^;- -^ >^ ^ X V £i i,u HI ra ^^B^^l ca ^^H ha 19 ta H ba ^Km te ^M ma H| ke ^^B sa H po ^^H ca ^^H pa ^^H ta ^^H ca H ca ^H al ^^1 ish HI sa ^^1 ma KB mi H^H ti 1^1 ta IH ca HI ne WUM al BH ca ^H ne Hi ca bh H ra ta ke ta te mo I mi ti ne te Aztec Name. Uh calli atli tochtl: Phonetic Value. ca a to kh P k m /7Y//~ V7 U WJUl Q)[n} tla, lotlan to, ta, te pil maitl chinhnauk xayacatl pi ma chi xa poc quanhtlaca? po ka pan pft quanh ca calacouayan ca al ixtli al ix citlalli ci, si matlactli ma chiquinitl chi coctli ca neitl ne h r ^ > □ a)9.:^- mi u ta ca al ta ta te ma sa ca! te ba * ^' * V Y'^.y- ^ ■/. /;■... I- <3 ca al sa po ca? ta ne mi *** ca? al ta te ma? sa sa : : A o 77 a ca sa ta u ra ca ca? ya ish ca ma ra ca ta te ne po J dU) ^'Q ca po? mo? u ti ca u ra ca a sa? ta ba ta ne? miteraalne? //// CO C^\j ^ c^ f^ < if pi ma ra ke ta sa po ca pa ta ne mi ^ a M^ V y ^ / ^ jm^c^io^ ra? ta ca mi u ta te te po caalca alishca? ta ma ca al? pa sataba?alpi ma ca ma ca pi al ta sa ba (The latter order is most natural, but gives no light. The figures to the ripht seem to aenoie the aee of the person commemorated, or the date wheii iie med. The two lines "" should give lo, the Four dots 4, the succeeding- single line 5. The next character is to, followed by three dots or 3. The next may be 44 or 46, but will need much study to determine. threes, fours and sixes. This practice also is Ilittite, and was generally employed by the scribes to call attention to proper names. For instance, to render the Ilittite characters by their phonetic values, the first line in the 4th 1 lainath inscription reads thus: po maca ke ca ba ma li ha ma al ba ca ba ca ti ca ne ta al ox po Baal macaca kcba Calm niati Ilaniati ra Canciaal, which may be rendered literally, "to Baal killed chief Caba Kin^ Hamath in Khintiel;" or, in more intelligible order, " KhiiUicl, King in Hamath, sacriHced the chief Caba to Baal." In its boustrophedon order and in its groups < f characters, therefore, the Davenport Tablet claims a Ilittite origin. An actual comparison of the Hittite and Mound Builder signs confirms the claim. True, there is not always absolute identity. This indeed could hardly be expected, as the I littite inscriptions were engraved some 2600 years ago, so that a distance in time not far short of 2000 years must have sepa- rated their writers from the ruder scribe who engraved the Davenport stone. Still, although a somewhat cursive form has superseded the purely hieroglyphic in many cases, it is not hard to detect the likeness to the original. Commencing with the first line within the arc in the lower part of the inscription, the first character to the left is a perpendicular line. This in Ilittite stands for a vowel sound, either / or u, and is the Az- tec tih a thorn. The following sign, two diverging lines joined above, is the equivalent of the Hittite yoke, the phonetic value of which is determined through the Cypriote as ra. The rounded form of this character which appears in the second line of the upper part of the tablet immediately to the left of the fracture is more in accordance with the original Hittite. The next, separated from the yoke by a mark of punctuation and resembling an abortive h or a Hebrew chcth, is a rude rendering of the Hittite and Aztec house, the phonetic value of which is ca {calli a house). In the Hamath inscriptions I find, however, an equally rude form of this character. It is followed by a cursive representative of the Hittite and Aztec conventional sign for w^ater, in Aztec a and in Hittite ha being its phonetic values. The next character I am not sure of, but it is suc- ceeded by a form almost identical with the Cypriote ta^ to. That again is followed by the Hittite ha. Next comes an imperfect oval, which I suppose, like the fourth character from the right in the same line, to be the equivalent in Mound Builder sign writing of the Hittite and Aztec animal's head, with the phonetic value ta. Passing over o. The last character in the line represents a weapon of some kind which in Hittite and Aztec, from he verb "to cut," has the value of ca or re. The figure at the beginning and at the end of the lower line is the Aztec flag, in Hittite and Aztec pa. To the left of it is fa, and next to it a rude representation of an arm, in Hittite and Aztec nc. The third character from the arm consists of two perpendicular lines, a Hittite form of ta. Next comes the tree with a value ca, then, after a more obscure character, the line or thorn //, and next two lines one of which joins the other in the centre at right angles, being identical with the Cypriote ta. After another period a character appears, the form of which is also Cypriote, for in Cypriote three lines diverging from a common base represent te. Then come te and ^o already found, and, next to the latter, a two-leaved gate which in Hit- tite and Aztec has the phonetic value ca. The third sign from the gate is in form like the figure 8. In Cypriote and in Corean its value is /, al, Ic. The circle is either the moon sa or the eye ish in Hittite. The only other sign I need mention in this line is the square, or parallelogram, with a dot in the centre. This is a rough form of the Aztec symbol for lo with a value of ma. The annexed comparative table of characters will be found to indicate the probable values of most of the Mound Builder forms. As I have added a table setting forth the characters in order as they are written, together with the values, it remains only that I should indicate the meaning of the inscription. Pro- visionally I read it thus : Miuta caal ta Tatema Saca Sataba (PCataba) ****** * * * ca al Sapoca tanemi pa******* Caal Tatema Saca casata uraca cayaish ca maracata tatenepoca poma utica. Ura caa Sataba tanemi Taralanepi, marachita Sapoca pa tanemi rataca miuta, tetepoca Alcaalisca tamaca Capa (? Alpa). The language is that of the Aztec — Sonora family, compris- ing the Tarahumara, Cahita, Pima, Opata, Cora and other dialects allied to the Aztec. According to these languages, of which it may be regarded as belonging to a parent form, the inscription gives us: •K- Sacrificed to Caal, Lord of lieaven, Sataba * * Sapoca the female slave * * * Caal, Lord of heaven casata in the men, in the women, the maidens, the boys poma utica. The man is Sataba, the slave of Taralane, the maiden Sapo- ca, the female slave, rataca died {i)r sacrificed), the boy Alcaal- isca the son of Capa (or Alpa). As the new Inscription which I have just received from Dr. Farquharson, and for which he tells me he is indebted to Mr. Pratt, reads perhaps from right to left Sataba Alpi maca, which might be translated "Sataba kills Alpi," an explanation of the tablet may be more completely furnished by its aid. We may regard Sataba as justly incurring the penalty of death for murder, but it is hard to say why the maiden Sapoca and Alcaalisca, who was probably the son of Alpi, should have suffered at the same time. The expression, in the men, in the women, the maiden, the boys poma utica would seem to con- vey the idea that the sacrifices were offered on their behalf, or in order that Caal, the god might be propitious to th-m. It is interesting in this connection to compare the first line of the fourth Hittite inscription from Hamath which reads: Khintiel, King in Hamath, sacrificed the chief Caba to Baal. The Hit- tites of Syria seem, either to have neglected the worship of their national divinities or fo have adored them under Semitic names, Before dealing with the vocabulary of the inscriptions I should mention a fact that has been known to me for some years past, namely the verbal connection of the languages of the Aztec Sonora family with that of the Yukahiri of Siberia, who call themselves Andon Domni. The following are exam- ples. Axtec Sonora man huth Pima^ teata Cora dor, dohema Eudeve maiden, girl maraguat Opata father atzai, hechal Cahita brother tihatzi Cora sister boui Tarahumara head moola Tarahumara mouk Pi7ne yachkala Tarahumara totlan Aztec, tatamo Tepehuana nanurite Cora tlaqualli Aztec acali Aztec helcala Tarahumara kia Tarahntnara The name of the chief Deity of the Mound Builders at Davenport appears from the inscription to have been Caal. This name may be compared with Quezal in the Aztec Quez- alcoatl and with such connected forms as Culhua and Kukul- nose tooth tongue food boat wind give Yukahiri yada toromma marchet etchea tschatsha pawa monoli yok yongul tody onnor lagul akshel illejennie keick 8 kan, but it apprars in all its integrity in Chail or Koil, the prin- cipal God of the Yukahiri. Vocabulary of the Cremation Scknk. miuta muhat Pima- kill mueat, muchit Cora die tnictia Aztec sacritice Caal Qut'zal-coatl Aztec Chail, Koil Yukahiri tatema titamacatum y-'/wrt heaven saca yzcacauhtli Aztec father hechai Cahita, oca Pima father tanemi tlama, teomicquc Aztec captive tineba Ilamath inscriptions %^\'\'A.n\. pa upi Tarahumara-v^ ox^wn uba, huup Pinta^ woman, female hubi Cahita wife ura uri Opata^mdn, male cayaish? ciuatl Aztec woman maracata, marachita maraguat Opata- g\r\ marchet Yukahiri maiden tatenepoca, tetepoca teichpuch, tetelpuch Aztec— hoy^ son tiperic Cora hoy caa tua Cora coa Tarahumara to be ca Aztec^Xo be ca CO, ca Aztec^'xn^ at, with ta tetech Aztec~Xo, for, in tamaca temachi Opata r^son The final // of Taralanepi may be the suffixed Aztec sign of the genitive pa. Some agreement appears between the Hittite inscriptions of Hamath and that of Davenport. The verb "to be," ca and the postposition ca appear in both. Sake^ a word apparently denoting lord in the Hamathite tablets, answers to the Saca of that of Davenport. The tanemi, servant, of the latter corres- ponds with tineha in the former. The Hamathite kill is maca, and this seems to appear in the second inscription which I have just received. It may be some time yet before our knowledge of the Hittite language will enable us to arrive at perfectly accurate translations of their inscriptions. Nor does it matter very much for the present that a few words in the Davenport tablet which cannot aftect the sense of the reading to any great extent remain a mystery. Were its language altogether unknown, it would still, as a purely Hittite monument, link the Old World with the New, destroy many false ethnological theories, and prove a stepping stone to a truer science of the past in this continent.