544 DISCOVEKIES IN MESOPOTAMIA. 



and constantly niado discoveries of the j^reatest inipoit to science on 

 that vast site of ruins. Two temple archives rewarded the lal)ors of 

 the American explorers within a few years. True, those of Sarj^on I 

 lay in ruins; enemies, probably the Elamites. {)lundered and destroyed 

 them. But if only the vases of the })re-Sar»i()nic kino" of Krek, Lu^al 

 Zagfjfisi, son of a patesi of the "city of bows," which were pieced 

 to<»'ether from thousands of fraiinients. had been found they would 

 be an ample rewai'd on account of the historical and paleo*;raj)hical 

 information that they furnish. The records of the Kossean kings 

 were intact. They contained all the votive gifts that the kings of the 

 so-called third Bai)ylonian dynasty had jjresented to the god Bel. 



Down to l.sy6 there were cleared from the ruins of Nutfar, succes- 

 sively, 2,000, S.ooo. and 21.0»to clay tablets and fragments, inscribed 

 and stamped bricks, stone and clay vases. They were of the pre- 

 Sargoidc period, as well as of all the later periods of Babylonian his- 

 tory, from Sargon I and Xaram-Sin. and even from Tr-Cxurand Dungi, 

 the two ancient kings of the city of Ur, down to Darius II and Arta- 

 xerxes Mnemon. They end)raced syllabaries, chronological lists, let- 

 ters, astronondcal and religious texts, tjix lists, |)lans of real estate, 

 contracts, besides images of divinities and toys of terra cotta, weap- 

 ons and inn)lements of stone and metal, ornaments of gold, silver, 

 copper, and bronze, carved precious stones and weights. It was esti- 

 mated that the inscribed monuments found up to iSi^O would till 12 

 volumes of two to three parts each if published. What specially 

 distinguishes the excavations of the Americans is the systematic clear- 

 ing up of the single layers of th(> mighty temple edifice and of its super- 

 structure. 



The colossal iuins of the tower of the temple of Bel, now called 

 Bint-el- Amir, rises 2'.t meters above the plain and 1.5 meters above 

 the mass of debris which surrounds it. The inunense platform, about 

 2.40 meters thick, constructed of sun-dried bricks, together with 

 the three-story temple t<^wer erei-ted upon it, })robal)ly a work of 

 King rr-Cxur, was laid l)are and the ascent to the single stages in the 

 southeast of the ruin was found. Close undei- this platform another 

 pavement was discovered, consisting of two hn'ers of baked liricks 

 of about 50 centimeters square and 8 centimeters thick. Most of 

 them were stamped, some with the name of Sargani-shar-ali, the others 

 with that of Naram-Sin. Both kinds were interniingled in both 

 brick layers, so that the identity of Sargani-shar-ali with the Sargon 

 of Nabonaid (3800 B. C.) was made sure. Ur-Gur had, it appears, 

 razed the buildings of his predecessors and elevated the platform of 

 his temple tower over the pavement of Naram-Sin. J. II. Haynes, 

 however, who since 1894 has been alone at the ruins of the temple of 

 Bel, superintending the excavations, was not content with these chrono- 

 logically important revelations, but sunk shafts in several places under 



