Romancing the Past: Ancient Babylon in Granville
"Look at this... it’s worthless, ten dollars from a vendor
in the street. But I take it, I bury it in the sand for a thousand years; it
becomes priceless." ~Belloq, Raiders of the Lost
The Denison Museum has on exhibition several Babylonian clay and stone
tablets originally collected by archaeologist Edgar James Banks
(1866-1945) prior to their purchase by Dr. E.R. Johnstone.
Banks, an antiquities enthusiast and entrepreneurial archaeologist in
the closing days of the Ottoman Empire, is considered and original
inspiration for the fictional composite figure of Indiana Jones.
The Denison museum collection of Babylonian artifacts were initially
acquired by archaeologist Edgar J. Banks in the early 20th
century. After a number of years, Dr.
Banks made the decision to sell his personal collection of artifacts to a
number of institutions and collectors, including Dr. E.R. Johnstone. Dr. Banks and Dr. Johnstone met at the
[click here to learn more about archaeology]
The Johnstone Collection
"It belongs in a museum!" ~
The clay tablets are inscribed with cuneiform
script and in translation represent receipts for goods such as an ox and a
slaughtered gazelle. The inscribed clay
cone is a foundation marker from the ancient city of
Also present in the collection are a cylinder seal, which was used in ancient times to
roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface like wet clay. The seal was
usually engraved with a 'picture story' in which the images often depicted scenes
of social or religious significance. The
seals were generally made from hard stone, glass, or ceramic clay. They first appeared in the