The Black Rock of Cybele Redux

Thank you, thank you, Papillonnoirs, for emailing a fascinating article from the London Times, circa 1912:

August 10, 19XX
The London Times

An ancient stone, dating from 2000 B.C. and described as an Assyrian Cenotaph, is currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum before being returned to its origins in Arabia.

For almost twenty years the cenotaph has been in the museum, but neglected. The tablet had, indeed, been catalogued, but, apparently, this had been done from a cursory examination, for it had been placed in a cardboard box, covered with a glass top, and marked “burial stone.” When finally tended to, it was found that the stone had been nibbled at by rodents.

The Cenotaph is quite 4,000 years old, but whence it came from, and which expedition uncovered it, is still subject for investigation. That it was of great antiquity when the Book of Genesis was written is agreed, and that was at least 2,800 years ago.

Papillonnoirs, this is almost certainly the Black Rock of Cybele! Part of my difficulty in tracing it is no doubt due to my designating it thus, while the museum had been designating it by the generic (and faulty) heading of Cenotaph. A Cenotaph is a burial stone, and while this might be an understandable mistake for a layperson to make, for the curator of a museum dealing in antiquities it is inexcusable, as is the neglect shown.