source was also the source of the Monolith seems proved by a certain
similarity of phraseology as well as by the reference to Tiglath
Pileser in connection with Pitru, but this similarity is not great
enough fully to restore our plus passages. Unfortunately for the
student of history, our tablets do not add any new facts, for, in the
parts preserved, we already had the earlier representatives of the
original sources from which the edition was derived. It does, however,
throw a most interesting light on the composition and development of
these sources.

Last and least valuable of all is the Obelisk. [Footnote: Discovery at
Kalhu, Layard, NR. II. 282. Layard, _Monuments of Nineve_, I. 53
ff.; L. 87 ff.; Abel-Winckler, 7f; Rasmussen, XXXIIIff.; 80 ff.
Amiaud-Scheil, _passim_; Winckler, KB. I. 128 ff.Oppert,
_Exped._ I. 342; _Hist._ 108 ff.; Menant, 97 ff. Sayce, RP¹,
V. 29 ff.; Scheil, RP squared, IV. 38; Jastrow, _Hebraica_,
V. 230. Mengedoht, _Bab. Or. Rec._, VIII, lllff.; 141ff.; 169
ff. Photographs and drawings too frequent for notice. Casts are also
common, e. g., in America, Metropolitan Museum, N. Y. City; University
of Pennsylvania; Haskell Museum, University of Chicago; Boston Museum
of Fine Arts.] Because of its most interesting sculptures and because
it gives a summary of almost the entire reign, it has either been
given the place of honor, or a place second to the Monolith alone. The
current view is given by one of our most prominent Assyriologists as
follows: "The first rank must be ascribed to the Black Obelisk, and
for the reason that it covers a greater period of Shalmaneser's reign
than any other.... It is clear then, that for a study of the reign of
Shalmaneser II the black obelisk must form the starting point, and
that, in direct connection with it, the other inscriptions may best be
studied, grouping themselves around it as so many additional