SMITH, George, English Assyriologist: b. London, 26 March 1840; d. Aleppo, Asiatic Turkey, 19 Aug. 1876. He was apprenticed to the engraver's trade, but became deeply inter ested in the Oriental explorations of Layard and Rawlinson and devoted himself in his spare time to the study of Assyrian subjects. His study at the British Museum attracted the at tention of Sir Henry Rawlinson, who permit ted him access to his workroom there, thus materially assisting him. His first notable achievement was the decipherment of a text fixing the date of the tribute paid to Shalman ezer by Jesu, son of Omri. He later became associated with Rawlinson in the preparation of the third volume of 'Cuneiform Inscrip tions of Western Asia,' and in 1867 he was appointed assistant in the Assyriology depart ment at the Museum. In 1871 he published (Annals of Assurbani-pol' transliterated and translated, as well as papers on (The Early History of Babylonia' and (The Reading of the Cypriote Inscriptions.' His translation of the Chaldean account of the Deluge was read before the Society of Biblical Arch=logy, 3 Dec. 1872 and brought him immediate fame. Sir Edwin Arnold of the Daily Telegraph sent him to Nineveh in 1873 for the purpose of find ing the missing tablets concerning the Deluge story. Smith secured not only these, but also
found the records of the succession and dura tion of the Babylonian dynasties. In 1874 he returned to Nineveh under the direction of the Museum and succeeded in procuring a large number of tablets belonging to the great Solar Epic, of which the Deluge forms the 11th day, as well as other valuable fragments. He pub lished the results of this expedition in 'Assy rian Discoveries'(1875); and