DISCOVERIES IN MESOPOTAMIA. 545 



Naram-Sin\s platform and searched the entire earth stratum, which was 

 about 11.25 meters deep, down to the underground water, for remains of 

 human civilization. This great sacritice of time, labor, and persever- 

 ance was to be rewarded in away that could not have been anticipated. 

 For. in one place, not far below Naram-Sin^s platform, was found an 

 altar of sun-dried bricks, the top of which was surrounded by a rim of 

 asphalt and covered with a layer of white ashes 6.5 centimeters thick 

 and the remains of burnt sacrificial animals; still farther below there 

 was unearthed a large, beautifully decorated terra-cotta vase in perfect 

 condition, an excellent example of old Babjdonian ceramic art. And 

 in another part of these underground excavations the oldest archi- 

 tectural arch of a drainage canal, and still farther down, in the deepest 

 hiyers, or, what amounts to the same, back in many centuries beyond 

 the tifth millennium, everywhere interesting and valuable remains of 

 human civilization came to light, fragments of vessels of copper, 

 bronze, and clay, a mass of earthenware, so beautifully lacquered in 

 red and black that one might consider them of Greek origin, or at least 

 influenced ])y Greek art, had they not been found 8 meters deep under 

 Naram-Sin's pavement. 



We could go on a long time in this way were we to enumerate 

 all the achievements which foreign explorers, supported by the ener- 

 getic interest of their governments and aided by the liberality of 

 their countrymen, have accomplished and are still accomplishing on 

 the ruined sites of Assyria, Babjdonia, and Elam. We could speak 

 of Hormuzd Rassam's tinding of Nebuchadnezzar's palace in the 

 middle mound of Babylon, called Kasr; of two beautiful wells which 

 reached down to the water level of the Euphrates, and of other traces 

 of water ]>alances in the extreme northern mound Babil, probably 

 the site of the hanging gardens of Semiramis. We could describe 

 the successful expeditions of Jules Oppert, William Bennett Loftus, 

 Sir Henry Rawlinson, and, above all, tell of the great work of the 

 Dieulafoys on the ruins of Susa. But we must forego this here, and 

 will mention in passing that only recently the French Government suc- 

 ceeded in acquiring for 5,000 francs the right from the Shah of Persia 

 to excavate for all time in Susa and the surrounding province and to 

 transfer half of the finds to France, while for the other half it .secured 

 the first option. The French have been active in Susa since November. 

 1897, under the direction of De Morgan. De Sarzec and Haynes con- 

 tinue their labors with undiminished and untiring zeal. Philadelphia, 

 it is rumored, is equipping a new expedition, and Germany— is she to 

 continue for another half century to be an idle and admiring onlooker 

 of the glorious deeds of foreign nations? Shall she longer be content 

 to play the part of the poet, until it is proclaimed: Too late; the world 

 is alread3' divided ? 



