Assyrian and Babylonian literature

Front matter

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Introduction

T\ I SCO VERY of the Cuneiform Inscriptions. — The his- / J tory of the ancients has a peculiar charm for us, which gradually increases as from year to year the darkness gives way to light through the excavation and decipherment of the monuments. Until a very recent date, scholars were accustomed to turn to Egypt for the beginning of all things. Egyptian literature was the oldest, Egyptian civilization the earliest, and from the Egyptian hieroglyphs, through the Phoenician, our alphabets were derived. But the cuneiform inscriptions bring another story, and the seat of the earliest known and most influential civilization must now be changed from the valley of the Nile to the country between the Tigris and the Euphrates, southern Mesopotamia, or, in other words, Babylonia. These inscriptions have opened up to us a history far more interesting and valuable than that written on the papyri and monuments of Egypt. It deals with a nation that played an important part in Old Testament history and exerted a powerful influence over the chosen people — with a nation whose literature begins earlier than that of the Hebrews and runs parallel with it until the latter are carried into captivity by the former. Although interesting from a general historical standpoint, this literature is the more valuable because of its striking similarities to the Hebrew, and because of the help it brings to an understanding of the biblical text.

At the beginning of the present century little was iv ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN LITERATURE

known of the ancient capitals of the Assyro-Babylonians aside from the meagre and imperfect accounts given by the Jewish and Greek historians. One would have searched his maps in vain for the exact location of Nineveh, the headquarters of the Assyrian armies which plundered the Israelites for so many years and finally besieged, captured, and transported the inhabitants of Samaria. In the case of Babylon it was no better — a city one of whose kings carried into captivity the remnant left by his northern kinsmen, the Assyrians.

Passing the travels and writings of Benjamin of Tudela (about 1 1 60); Rabbi Pethachiah, of Ratisbon, a short time after the death of Benjamin; Conti (1444); Ortelius, of Antwerp, who published his " Geographical Treasury " in 1596, in which was incorporated all that was known at that time of Oriental geography; Hakluyt's collections of travels and voyages (1599) containing an account, translated from the Italian, of the travels of Cesare de Federici, who was the first to give us a description of Akerkuf, identified in recent years as the Dur-Kurigalzu of the inscriptions; Rauwolf, of Augsburg, who describes Akerkuf as the Tower of Babel (1573); about the beginning of the seventeenth century, John Cartwright, the first European to attempt a survey of the ruins of Nineveh; Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa, ambassador of Philip III of Spain to the court of Persia; Pietro della Valle (1621), who still regarded Baghdad as the site of Babylon, and who identified the great mound near Hilleh ( = Babil) as the site of the Tower of the Confusion of Tongues; Pedro Teixeita, a Portuguese; Sir Thomas Herbert (1626); Tavernier, who visited Mosul in 1644; Pater Vincenzo Maria di Santa Caterina da Siena (1657), who was the first, since Benjamin of Tudela, to identify the site of Babylon with Hilleh as over against Baghdad; Flower (1667); Chardin, who in 1674 copied the so-called Window inscription, the shortest of the trilingual Achaemenian inscriptions; Engelbert Kampfer (about 1694), who copied the so-called H 2 Persepolis inscription; Cornells de Bruin (1701); Otter, in 1734, who was the

INTRODUCTION V

first to notice the Behistun inscriptions and reliefs, afterward copied by Rawlinson and used in the decipherment of the inscriptions; Edward Ives (1758); Pater Emmanuel de Saint Albert, whose report on the " Ruins of Babylon " to the Duke of Orleans formed the basis of D'Anville's " Memoir " on the position of Babylon, read before the French Academy of Inscriptions in 1755; Carsten Niebuhr, who in 1765 copied several Achsemenian inscriptions, and from whose plates Grotefend afterward deciphered the names of Darius and Xerxes, thus opening the way for all future work in this line; Count Caylus, who in 1762 published the celebrated " Vase of Xerxes," with the quadrilingual inscription — in Egyptian (Hieroglyphs), Old Persian, Susian, and Babylonian — " Xerxes, the Great King "; and others, we come to the French scholar, Beauchamp, who, between 1790 and 1795, shipped to Paris some specimen bricks covered with Babylonian characters. The excitement occasioned by these short inscriptions, and especially by the report that the ruins of Babylon had been discovered in the vicinity of Hilleh, caused the East India Company to issue orders to their agent in Bassorah to obtain as quickly as possible a collection of these Babylonian inscriptions and to send them by Bombay to England. Between 1 80 1 and 1 8 10 several different collections were shipped, among which was the famous Nebuchadrezzar stone in ten columns, called the East India House Inscription, and now in the India Office in London.

As yet no systematic work had been done in excavating these old Assyrian and Babylonian ruins. Claudius James Rich, an Englishman, the East India Company's representative in Baghdad, was the first to begin such excavations. Rich commenced his work in 181 1, and in 1812 published his " Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon," and in 1818 his " Second Memoir on Babylon," containing " an inquiry into the correspondence between the ancient description and the remains still visible on the site." In this " Second Memoir " are found copies of several more or less important Babylonian inscriptions, among which may be vi ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN LITERATURE

mentioned as the most important the so-called Borsippa inscription of Nebuchadrezzar. Rich continued his work until 1820, sending at intervals to England such remains of inscriptions, bricks, sculptures, etc., as were excavated. In 1820 he made a journey for his health into the Kurdish mountains, and on his return he spent a few days in Mosul on the Tigris. From Mosul he saw on the other (or left) side of the river mounds similar to those at Hilleh, and he was informed by Arabs that a large stone had been found in these mounds, covered with engravings of men and animals. This find had been reported to the governor of Mosul, and he had ordered it to be broken into a thousand pieces, because, as he said, it contained engravings of the ancient gods; and with the Turks idolatry is the most heinous sin. Rich came to the conclusion that these mounds opposite Mosul represented the capital of the Assyrian Empire. On his journey down the Tigris to Baghdad he landed at the mouth of the Upper Zab and examined the mounds there, called by the Arabs Nimrud. He collected a number of inscribed bricks, which are now to be found in the British Museum, but was not able to pursue his investigations further.

After a lapse of twenty years, in the spring of 1840, Austen Henry Layard visited the ruins of Nineveh as identified by Rich. In 1842 Layard returned to Mosul without having made any excavations. Here he met P. C. Botta, the French consul, who had been interested in this work by the Orientalist Mohl, at that time professor in Paris. Layard, being without the means necessary to carry on the excavations, strongly urged Botta to direct his attention to the work. Botta himself was without means at this time, but in 1843 ne was enabled to begin, and he continued until 1845, during which time he laid bare the city walls of Khorsabad and discovered many valuable inscriptions. In i849~'5i he published his " Monuments of Nineveh," by order of the French Government, in which are to be found 220 pages of inscriptions.

In the spring of 1845 Sir Stratford Canning, at that

INTRODUCTION yii

time the English ambassador at Constantinople, offered Layard sufficient money to undertake excavations. Toward the end of the year Layard began work on the ruins of Nimrud, five hours south of Mosul (an hour in the East is from two and three quarters to three English miles). From the beginning he was successful. The sum allotted by Canning gave out in June, 1847, and Layard was again compelled to return to England. During the two years he had, however, laid bare three large Assyrian palaces — viz., the Northwest palace, that of Ashurnagirpal (884-858 b. c.) ; the Central palace, probably built by the follower of Ashurnagirpal, Shalmaneser II (858-823 b. a), in which was found the celebrated Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser (now in the British Museum); and finally that of Esarhaddon (680-669 B - c 0- The richest returns came from the Northwest palace, and the inscriptions found were in a much better state of preservation than those excavated by Botta in Sargon's palace at Khorsabad.

Sir Stratford Canning generously presented the entire results of Layard's expedition to the British Museum, to which place they were shipped by the explorer himself. Layard shortly afterward published an account of his work in " Nineveh and its Remains." This book created a great sensation in England, and as a result the English Government became interested in the excavations. In 1849 Layard was given leave of absence from his diplomatic post in Constantinople and sent back to Assyria, and Hormuzd Rassam, English consul at Mosul, but a native Arab, was ordered to join him. During the first expedition, Layard had confined his operations to Nimrud, but in this, his second, he began work at Kouyunjik, the site of Nineveh. Botta had already conducted excavations at this mound, but with comparatively little success, since his methods were wholly unscientific. Instead of running trenches here and there to find walls and then following these walls, Botta sank perpendicular shafts to no purpose. In his first expedition Layard had found the Southwest palace of Sennacherib (705-681 b. a), as restored by his grandson Ashurviii ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN LITERATURE

banipal, but he had not been able to carry his work to completion. In his second trip (1849-51) this building was fully brought to light. This palace was the largest yet found, containing seventy-three rooms. Excavations were also made in Nebbi Yunus — i. e., the grave of the prophet Jonah — where Layard says that he found Esarhaddon inscriptions, and in Qal'at Sherkat (the old Asshur). In Nebbi- Yunus, palaces of Ramman-Nirari (811-782 b. a), Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon were found, while in Qal'at Sherkat, Layard, or rather Rassam, discovered the foundations of a palace of Tiglath-pileser I, and here it was that the large cylinder of eight hundred lines belonging to Tiglath-pileser I (1120 B.C.) was found. During this expedition Layard also visited several sites in Babylonia, but he was able to accomplish little or nothing.

Immediately following and closely connected with Layard's second expedition was that of Hormuzd Rassam (i852-'54), during which the North palace of Ashurbanipal was discovered and laid bare. In this was found the celebrated " Library of Ashurbanipal," containing thousands of clay tablets inscribed on both sides.

About the same time with Rassam (i852-'54, or rather 1851-55), Victor Place, the French consul at Mosul, took up the work of excavating at Khorsabad which had been begun by Botta. While this work was going on in Assyria, Loftus from 1849, Fresnel and Oppert in 1852, and Taylor from 1852, began excavations in Babylonia. In 1 853-^4 Loftus and Taylor visited and afterward described the ruins of Warka, Senkereh, Ur, etc. The French expedition was badly managed, but it must be acknowledged that almost all that we know of the topography of Babylonia dates from this expedition. The boat containing the results of their excavations was wrecked in the Tigris on May 23, 1855, and hence the inscriptions never reached Paris, to which place they were being shipped when lost. Accounts of both of these expeditions have been given by Oppert and Loftus respectively. With these expeditions

INTRODUCTION ix

what may be called the first period of Assyro-Babylonian excavations comes to an end.

Before going to the second period, mention must be made of the discovery and copying of the famous Behistun inscription by Colonel Rawlinson (later Sir Henry). This inscription consists of about four hundred lines, and it was carved, by order of Darius Hystaspes, on a steep mountain — about seventeen hundred feet high — called Behistun (near Kermanschah). The English officer not only copied this inscription for the first time (between the years 1835 and 1837), but he also made the first translation, having worked at intervals on this inscription from 1835 to 1846, when he brought his manuscript, containing the copy of the Babylonian text, to London. The important part played by this inscription and its discoverer in the history of the decipherment of the inscriptions will be noted later. After the close of the first period, no excavations were made for almost twenty years. During this time Layard published his " Inscriptions in the Cuneiform Character from Assyrian Monuments," and the first three volumes of the " Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia " had appeared, edited by Rawlinson with the help of Edwin Norris and George Smith.

In 1872 George Smith had the good fortune to discover some tablets containing the Chaldean account of the Deluge. The results of his find were laid before the Society of Biblical Archaeology on December 3, 1872. " In consequence of the wide interest taken at the time in these discoveries, the proprietors of the ' Daily Telegraph ' newspaper came forward and offered to advance a sum of one thousand guineas for fresh researches at Nineveh in order to recover more of these interesting inscriptions, the terras of agreement being that I should conduct the expedition, and should supply the ' Telegraph ' from time to time with accounts of my journeys and discoveries in the East in return." In January, 1873, with George Smith, the second period of excavations began. Between 1873 and 1876 Smith made three expeditions, from the last of

X ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN LITERATURE

which he never returned, dying on his homeward journey at Aleppo, August 19, 1876, of a fever contracted in Baghdad. Smith's chief work was to make a more thorough examination of the palaces in Kouyunjik, and especially of the Northwest palace discovered by Rassam. Rassam continued the work begun by Smith, and between 1877 and 1 88 1 made three expeditions. The chief result of the first was the uncovering of another palace of Ashurnagirpal at Nimrud, and the finding of the celebrated Bronze Gates of Shalmaneser II. In the same year he visited the palaces of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal at Kouyunjik, and brought back with him about fourteen hundred tablets and the large ten-column cylinder of Ashurbanipal, known as the Rassam (R m ) cylinder. In his second expedition he directed his attention to Babylon. Besides the so-called Egibi tablets, contracts, etc., he brought with him this time inscriptions of Nebuchadrezzar, and, what is more important, inscriptions of Nabonidus and of Cyrus. During his last trip the most important discovery was the Temple of the Sun at Abu-Habba, the Sephervaim of the Old Testament and the Sippara of the inscriptions. This site was accidentally found while Rassam was hunting for another mound. It is only seven to eight hours southwest of Baghdad, or less than twenty-five miles.

From 1876 to 1881, while Rassam was also at work, the French vice-consul at Bosrah, Ernest de Sarzec, had been excavating at Tello, the Shirpurla — or Lagash— of the inscriptions. The finds were for the most part non-Semitic. They are now in the Louvre. De Sarzec has been excavating at Tello at intervals during the last twenty years. He was there in 1889, and was visited by some of the American party who were then excavating at Niffer.

The first American expedition to Babylonia was the Catherine Wolfe (1884- 1885), under the direction of Dr. William Hayes Ward, of " The Independent." The purpose of this party was to explore and to describe sites rather than to excavate. The most interesting part of the report is in regard to Anbar, about which Dr. Ward says: "The

INTRODUCTION xi

discovery of this city, which represents the Agade, or Sippara of Anunit, the Akkad of Genesis x, 10, the Persabora of classical geographers, and the Anbar of Arabic historians, is of the first importance." Dr. Ward has discussed this site at length in the January number of " Hebraica," 1886. He recommended Anbar, Niffer, and Warka for excavation, also mentioning Umm-el-Akarib, and the neighbouring Yokha as specially promising sites. While no excavation was attempted by the Catherine Wolfe Expedition, it laid the foundation for the collection belonging to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It is also to be regarded as the forerunner of the expedition of the Babylonian Exploration Fund, sent out by the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1884 the French Government sent M. Dieulafoy and Messrs. Babin and Houssay upon an archaeological mission to Susa. This expedition met with success, Dieulafoy sent the finds to Paris, and a special gallery has been set aside in the Louvre for their display.

In the winter of 1887 some Fellahin made a very important discovery at Tel-el-Amarna in Upper Egypt, on the eastern bank of the Nile, about midway between Minieh and Siout. These ruins represent the site of the Temple of Amenophis IV — i. e., Khu-en-Aten, the so-called " Heretic King" of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, about 1500 b. c. — the son of Amenophis III. In the early part of this century, when the scientific staff attached to the army of Napoleon, on the expedition to Egypt, were surveying and searching for materials for a complete map of Egypt — afterward edited by Jacotin — a number of Egyptian antiquities were found at Tel-el-Amarna, which, afterward, found their way into the different European museums. However valuable and important these early finds were, there can not be any comparison between them and the finds of 1887. No one knows exactly where or when these tablets were found, since the Arabs, as is customary, took care to obliterate all traces of their digging after their great find. During the winter of 1887 and 1888 about two xii ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN LITERATURE

hundred of these tablets were offered for sale by native dealers. Afterward others were found. Various views have been given as to the total number of these tablets found, but the outside limit is perhaps three hundred and thirty. The British Museum secured eighty-two through Dr. Budge, the Gizeh Museum in Egypt about sixty, and the Berlin Museum about one hundred and sixty, of which a very large number are so fragmentary as to give little or no connected sense. The authorities of the Berlin Museum have published their collection, together with those at Gizeh, under the editorship of Drs. Winckler and Abel, The Tel-el-Amarna tablets in the British Museum are marked Bu. 88-10-13+, or Budge, the 13th of October, 1888. They have been edited by Drs. Bezold and Budge. In addition to those tablets which were secured by the different museums, a great many passed into the hands of private individuals, Turkish, Russian, and French officials, and missionaries.

In April, 1888,' Messrs. Humann, Luschan, and Winter made excavations in Zinjirli under the auspices of the Berlin Oriental Committee. Zinjirli lies at the base of the Amanus Mountains, called by the Turks Giaour — east of the ridge — facing the Antioch plain. It is one of the narrowest parts of the plain, midway between Antioch and Marash. The work of excavation was renewed in 1890 and 1 89 1, and extended to Gerjin, a large mound an hour and a quarter to the east of Zinjirli. The most important inscriptions discovered were: (1) The Monolith of Esarhaddon; (2) the Panammu statue, bearing an inscription in old Aramaic characters similar to those on the Mesha stone; (3) the Hadad inscriptions; and (4) the Building inscription.

The second American expedition to Babylonia was that of the Babylonian Exploration Fund, under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania. The sites for excavation, chosen by Dr. Peters, were Anbar, identified by the Catherine Wolfe Expedition with Sippar; Birs Nimrud (Borsippa) and Niffer or Nufar (Nippur). The last-named

INTRODUCTION xiii

site was the one finally selected. The conditions of excavation were those prescribed by the Turkish law. No concessions, or special permissions, were granted, except in the matter of the topographical map of the site to be excavated, which is generally required beforehand. A popular account of the first and second campaigns has been published by Dr. Peters, the director, under the title " Nippur, or Explorations and Adventures on the Euphrates."

The Irade granting permission to excavate — as given in Dr. Peters's " Nippur," I, Appendix C — reads as follows:

" In behalf of the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, the United States legation at Constantinople has applied for permission to excavate for antiquities at Birs Nimrod, in the district of Hilleh, and at a place called Tel Niffer, in the subdistrict of Divaniah, both belonging to the Vilayet of Baghdad; and subject to the following conditions this permission is herewith granted:

" I. According to the laws relating thereto, all the antiquities discovered shall revert to the Imperial Museum.

" 2. The objects found shall be kept in a safe place appointed by the Government, through the commissioner, and the excavators shall not touch or meddle with them.

" 3. Excavations shall not be begun until maps of the places to be excavated are approved by the Vali (governorgeneral) of the glorious city of Baghdad.

" 4. Excavations shall not extend beyond the limits shown by the maps; nor shall excavations be made in more than one place at the same time.

"5. If there be discovered any attempt to defraud the Government in any way and by reason thereof the excavations be stopped, the excavators shall claim no damages for losses accruing from the delay.

" 6. If excavations do not begin, or if begun are not finished, during the period for which this permission is granted, the excavators are obliged to obtain a new permission before they can prosecute further excavations.

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" 7. If, at the end of the excavations or before, the Government be duly notified, and the excavators are proved to have walked according to the statutes of the law, the bond-money deposited by the excavators shall be returned.

" 8. If without good reason excavations do not begin within three months after this permission has been passed over to the excavators by the Vali of Baghdad, or if without good reason the excavations shall stop at any time for two months, this permission is null and void.

" 9. The permission can not be transferred to another party or sold.

" 10. The excavators shall pay the salary of the commissioner appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction to accompany them.

" Finally, the excavators shall strictly fulfil all the above conditions; then the excavators may purchase such part of the objects found as may seem superfluous to the Imperial Museum if, after the price has been agreed upon, the supreme court of Bab-el-Aali consent to the sale thereof.

" Therefore, for a period of two years to the abovementioned trustees this as a permission has been given. " Grand Vizier Mehmed Kiamil Ben Sallih, " Minister of Public Instruction — Muniff.

" November 19, 1304; and First Spring 27, 1306."

The expedition left the United States in June, 1888, and arrived at Niffer on January 30, 1889. On account of the great importance of the results obtained, the following short descriptions, taken from " The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania," Volume I, Part II, edited by Professor Hilprecht, curator of the Babylonian Museum in the University of Pennsylvania, are given in full:

" In the first campaign (1888-1889) the staff were John P. Peters, director; Hermann V. Hilprecht and Robert Francis Harper, Assyriologists; J. H. Haynes, business manager, commissary, and photographer; Percy Hastings Field, architect; Daniel Noorian, interpreter; Bedry

INTRODUCTION XV

Bey, commissioner of the Ottoman Government. The excavations occupied the time from February 6 to April 15, 1889, with a maximum force of two hundred Arabs. The principal results were: a trigonometrical survey of the ruins and their surroundings, an examination of the whole field by trial trenches, systematic excavations chiefly at Sections III, V, I, and X. Many clay coffins examined and photographed. Objects carried away: Over two thousand cuneiform tablets and fragments (among them three dated in the reign of King Ashuretililani of Assyria); a number of inscribed bricks; terra-cotta brick stamp of Naram-Sin; fragment of a barrel cylinder of Sargon of Assyria; inscribed stone tablet; several fragments of inscribed vases (among them two of King Lugalzaggisi of Erech); door-socket of Kurigalzu; about twenty-five Hebrew bowls; a large number of stone and terra-cotta vases of various sizes and shapes; terra-cotta images of gods and their ancient moulds; reliefs, figurines and toys in terra-cotta; weapons and utensils in stone and metal; jewelry in gold, silver, bronze, and various precious stones; a number of weights, seals, and seal cylinders, etc.

" In the second campaign (1 889-1 890) the staff were John P. Peters, director; J. H. Haynes, business manager, commissary, and photographer; Daniel Noorian, interpreter and superintendent of workmen; and an Ottoman commissioner. The excavations occupied the time from January 14 to May 3, 1890, with a maximum force of four hundred Arabs. The principal results were an examination of ruins by trial trenches and systematic excavations at Sections III, V, and X continued, a row of rooms on the southeast side of the ziggurrat and shrine of Bur-Sin II excavated. The objects carried away were about eight thousand cuneiform tablets and fragments (most of them dated in the reigns of the Cassite kings and of rulers of the second dynasty of Ur); a number of new inscribed bricks; three brick stamps in terra-cotta and three door-sockets in diorite of Sargon I; one brick stamp of Naram-Sin; sixtyone inscribed vase fragments of Alusharshid; two vase fragxvi ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN LITERATURE

ments of Entemena of Shirpurla; one inscribed unhewn marble block and several vase fragments of Lugal-kigubnidudu; a few vase fragments of Lugalzaggisi ; two door-sockets in diorite of Bur-Sin II; over one hundred inscribed votive axes, knobs, intaglios, etc., presented to the temple by Cassite kings; about seventy-five Hebrew and other imscribed bowls; one enamelled clay coffin and many other antiquities similar in character to those excavated during the first campaign, but in greater number.

" In the third campaign (i 893-1 896) the staff were J. H. Haynes, director, etc., and an Ottoman commissioner; Joseph A. Meyer, architect and draughtsman, from June to November, 1894. The excavations occupied the time from April 11, 1893, to February 15, 1896 (with an interruption of two months, April 4 to June 4, 1894), with an average force of fifty to sixty Arabs. The principal results were systematic excavations at Sections III, I, II, VI-X, and searching for the original bed and banks of the Shatt-en-Nil; an examination of the lowest strata of the temple, three sections excavated down to the water level; a critical determination of the different layers of the basis of uncovered pavements and platforms; the later additions to the ziggurrat studied, photographed, and, whenever necessary, removed; the preserved portions of Ur-Gur's ziggurrat uncovered on all four sides; systematic study of the ancient system of Babylonian drainage; the two most ancient arches of Babylonia discovered; structures built by Naram-Sin and pre-Sargonic buildings and vases unearthed; about four hundred tombs of various periods and forms excavated, and their contents saved. The objects carried away were about twenty-one thousand cuneiform tablets and fragments (among them contracts dated in the reign of Dungi and Darius II and Artaxerxes Mnemon); many bricks of Sargon I and Naram-Sin; the first inscribed brick of Dungi in Nippur; fifteen brick stamps of Sargon I, one of Naram- Sin; inscribed torso of a statue in diorite (two thirds of life size, about 3000 b. a), and fragments of other statues of the same period; incised votive tablet of Ur-Enlil; three un-

INTRODUCTION xvii

finished marble blocks of Lugal-kigub-nidudu, and over five hundred vase fragments of pre-Sargonic kings and patesis; about sixty inscribed vase fragments of Alusharshid, one of Sargon, three of Entemena; one door-socket and one votive tablet of Ur-Gur; one votive tablet of Dungi; a number of inscribed lapis-lazuli disks of Cassite kings; fragment of a barrel cylinder of the Assyrian period; fragments of an old Babylonian terra-cotta fountain in high relief; water cocks; drain tiles; a collection of representative bricks from all the buildings found in Nippur; about fifty clay coffins and burial urns, and many other antiquities of a character similar to those excavated during the first two campaigns but in greater number and variety."

The Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople has recently been conducting excavations at Abu Habba (Sippar) with funds granted from the private purse of the Sultan. These excavations have been under the direction of Father Scheil and Bedry Bey, and important finds have been made.

The prospects for future excavations are very poor, for two chief reasons. The Turkish Government, in the person of Hamdy Bey, of the Stamboul Museum, has finally learned the value of these discoveries, and has passed a law that all antiquities are hereafter to be regarded as the property of the Sultan. The translation of the Turkish law on archaeological excavations, which follows, is taken from Dr. Peters's "Nippur," Appendix D:

" Article I. The remains left by the ancient populations of the states forming at present the dominions of the Ottoman Empire — that is to say, the gold and silver and other ancient coins, and the inscriptions containing reference to history, and statues, and sepultures, and ornamental objects in clay, stone, and other materials, utensils, arms, tools, statuettes, ring-stones, temples, palaces, circuses, theatres, fortifications, bridges, aqueducts, bodies and objects in tombs, burying mounds, mausoleums and columns — are regarded as antiquities.