Löwenstern, in his ‘Essai de Déchiffrement,’ published in 1845, contributed little to the progress of the study. He, however, boldly attempted to pass beyond the guidance of the Persepolitan inscriptions, and to decipher two proper names in an inscription recently found at Khorsabad. The one he selected is engraved over a bas-relief and appears in Botta (Plate 25). The subject evidently referred to the capture of a city, and Löwenstern learned from the Hebrew Scriptures that the Assyrians had only captured four important places. One of these was Asdod, which was taken by Esarhaddon, and the appearance of sea in the bas-relief left no doubt that this was the place referred to. He had thus ingeniously conjectured the names of the city and the conqueror by independent means; and there was little difficulty in fixing the cuneiform groups in which they were to be found. We have already said that Löwenstern observed the close resemblance between the Assyrian and Persepolitan characters; and he at first thought that the similarity extended to the square writing of the Hebrews. It was by comparison with these that he sought to achieve his decipherment. The name of the town consisted of five characters. The first he did not know, but assumed to be _a_; the second corresponded exactly to the Hebrew ‘shin,’ the third to the Old Persian _d_; and, pursuing this method, he satisfied himself that he had deciphered ‘Asdoh’ or ‘Asdod.’ Botta afterwards pointed out that the word had been improperly transcribed, and that the first sign, translated _a_, was simply the determinative of ‘city.’[777] As regards the group that should contain the name of Esarhaddon, Löwenstern thought it consisted of three signs. The first, he erroneously stated, had been ascertained by Grotefend to be _r_;[778] the second was already known as _s_ in ‘Asdod’; the third bore a remote resemblance to the Hebrew ‘koph’ turned over on its side. It remained to adapt the result, _r_ _s_ _k_, to the name of Esarhaddon. The matter was simplified by Isaiah, who calls the king in whose reign Asdod was captured Sargon. Another reading of this name is ‘Sarak,’ which is evidently the word in the inscription, the transposition of the _r_ and _s_ being obviously unimportant. It happened, curiously enough, that Löwenstern guessed the name of the Khorsabad king correctly, but his transliteration was entirely at fault. Two years later, Longpérier pointed out that he had omitted the first sign of the name altogether; and Botta protested against the separation of the second sign into two, in order to evolve _r_ and _s_.[779]