"What is called the 'witness of the monuments' is often strangely misunderstood. The monuments witness to nothing which any reasonable critic has ever doubted. No one, for instance, has ever doubted that there were kings of Israel (or Judah) named Ahab and Jehu and Pekah and Ahaz and Hezekiah, or that Tiglath-Pileser and Sennacherib led expeditions into Palestine; the mention of these (and such like) persons and events in the Assyrian annals has brought to light many additional facts about them which it is an extreme satisfaction to know: but it has only 'confirmed' what no critic had questioned. On the other hand, the Assyrian annals have shewn that the chronology of the Books of Kings is, in certain places, incorrect: they have thus confirmed the conclusion which critics had reached independently upon internal evidence, that the parts of these books to which the chronology belongs are of much later origin than the more strictly historical parts, and consequently do not possess equal value. "The inscriptions, especially those of Babylonia, Assyria, and Egypt, have revealed to us an immense amount of information respecting the antiquities and history of these nations, and also, in some cases, respecting the peoples with whom, whether by commerce or war, they came into contact: but (with the exception of the statement on the stele of Merenptah that 'Israel is desolated') the first event connected with Israel or its ancestors which they mention or attest is Shishak's invasion of Judah in the reign of Rehoboam; the first Israelites whom they specify by name are Omri and his son Ahab. There is also indirect illustration of statements in the Old Testament relating to the period earlier than this; but the monuments supply no 'confirmation' of any single fact recorded in it, prior to Shishak's invasion." _S. R. Driver, Authority and Archaeology Sacred and Profane, part 1, pages 150-151 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons)._ ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia: Earlier explorations in. For some account of the earlier archæological explorations in Babylonia and their results, See (in volume 1) BABYLONIA, PRIMITIVE; and (in volume 4) SEMITES. ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Babylonia: American exploration of the ruins of ancient Nippur. [Footnote: Quotations in this account from Professor Hilprecht's copyrighted reports in the "Sunday School Times" are used with permission from the publishers of that journal.]