Page:Biblical Libraries (Richardson).djvu/119

 This, together with the circumstances of the times as now known, seems to take the matter quite out of the "region of theory" (Macalister HDB2 182) into that of the fact, at least up to the point of recognizing that the city was in some way especially and characteristically connected with books and writing. It apparently was, or contained as its distinctive mark, a library—like Sippar, as implied in Berosus and found in excavation. Indeed the only thing actually urged against this is that it is "difficult to believe" (EB2: 2681) by those who have taken the now untenable position of the incultural state of Palestine before the Exodus.

The two Nebos also, if their names were in fact derived from Nabu, God of writing, and he was especially worshipped there, must, like Hermopolis in Egypt, where Thoth was especially worshipped, have contained libraries, for where the god of writing was specially worshipped,