The Babylonian priest whose the closest thing to the horse's mouth history has for Babylonia.

HIS words as repeated by those who had access to his history of Babylon are the holy grail of understanding Babylon. Why ask some gum chewing archaeologist to interpret some pottery when you have a clear historical record to trace and hunt down?

Which would you rather read The Economist 2006 analysis of the 1929 stock crashs or some archaeologists interpretation of events of this period from a stock ticker device unearthed in 3154?

That "1900" is the date that old Berossus' Babylonian knowledge seems to start fading out. People just didn't care in that much detail anymore. History has fads. Egyptian crazes. Greek revival. Babylon captured the imagination for a short while during the late 19th century. Britannica, in future editions, chose not to "waste" as much space for things few folks read. Babylonia, as an Encyclopaedia Britannica article, went from 12 pages in length (1900) to just 2 pages by 1980. I don't know what space it qualifies in the latest edition - probably not a lot. Just because they cut material, doesn't mean that material isn't valid. It simply means they hacked stuff out.

This is how history gets lost. Other things are invented, new people need to be listed and space becomes a premium unless they want to have the set consist of 340 volumes (which would be cool;-). A library has to do the same thing. Pick and choose.

Few if anyone will know or care who George Bush is by the year 2100. Any biographies of him will start getting scarce several hundred years after that.

How many biographies do you still stock on Rutherford B. Hayes?

Archaeological reconstruction of history is the last resort.

PS
Folks, even studious folks, often wonder what the value is in keeping Encyclopedia sets from different time periods. The answer is simple - they contain in-depth knowledge for the periods they were produced and new editions often hack as much away as they add. As a history resource the 1900 Britannica knocks out the recent editions with one hand tied behind its back. (The 30 volumes just take up lots of shelf space;-)