TALBOT1740

Lombard Street
11^th May 1877

Dear Sir

I enclose a receipt for your subscription for this year to the Society – You are aware of course of the arrival of 2000 tablets collected by George Smith ¹ in Babylonia reaching from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar ² to the end of Darius ³ –

Nebuchadnezzar began to reign at Babylon after the fall of Nineveh, and Nineveh was taken by Cyaxares ⁴ after the eclipse of Thales ⁵ in B.C. 585 There has been a long contest concerning the dates of the Thales eclipse whether in 585, or 600 – I have this morning received a computation according to the best tables, of the path of the eclipse of B.C. 610 which passed near Kars and Erivan ⁶ far above the latitude of Sardes in Asia minor – So that the reign of Nebuchadnezzar is now clearly fixed 25 years lower than commonly supposed – This is an interesting fact as regards the investigation of the tablets just arrived

Believe me Yours very truly
J W Bosanquet

H. F. Talbot Esq^r