July 14, i 



NATURE 



243 



•naturalists take to follow the lead of their professional 

 brethren in nomenclatural questions (always reserving 

 the '•'■ Scomber scomber" principle) the better it will be 

 for all parties. The change is bound to come, and it 

 may as well be accepted gracefully. In making a family 

 ^'"Arvicolidce" the author departs from all authority ; and 

 the adding of the name of its founder to each family and 

 order of fishes is an unnecessary redundancy. 



The volume is illustrated with several photogravures, 

 all of which are excellent from an artistic point of view, 

 while several afford interesting glimpses of local scenery. 

 If it be regarded merely as a stepping-stone towards 

 fuller treatment, the work may be welcomed as indicating 

 the recognition of the importance of treatises on our 

 local British faunas. R. L. 



THE AMERICAN EXCAVATIONS IN 

 MESOPOTAMIA. 

 Nippur ; or., Explorations and Adventures on the 

 Euphrates. By J. P. Peters. Vol. i. pp. xvi + 375 ; 

 vol. ii. pp. X + 420. (London : Putnam's Sons, 1897-98.) 



THOSE who take an interest in Mesopotamian excava- 

 tions, and in the building up of the history of the 

 ancient empires which flourished in the land "between 

 the two rivers " by means of almost undecipherable 

 cuneiform documents, will welcome the appearance of Dr. 

 Peters' volumes. We must, however, warn the reader 

 that he is not to expect a thrilling narrative like that 

 which the late Sir Henry Layardgave us in his " Nineveh 

 and Babylon," and " Nineveh and its Remains," both of 

 which works were published nearly forty-five years ago, 

 and he is not to look out for vivid tales of the uncovering 

 of the palaces of mighty kings in the presence of hundreds 

 oi wondering and enthusiastic natives, nor for anything of 

 the kind. No Mesopotamian traveller can ever hope to 

 attract the attention of the reading public as thoroughly 

 as did Sir Henry Layard, for there is, unfortunately, no 

 second Nineveh to "discover" ; though, by the way, its site 

 was not only never lost, but was thoroughly well known. 

 Moreover, the reader must not expect from Dr. Peters a 

 scientific work like Dr. Oppert's " Expedition Scientifique 

 en M^sopotamie," the first part of which appeared in 

 1859, for the work which he undertook to do in Babylonia 

 and Assyria was not on all-fours with that which the 

 eminent French man of science was called upon to perform. 

 Sir Henry Layard's want of knowledge of Assyrian was 

 made up for by the possession of considerable skill in 

 writing an easily read and popular account of his travels 

 and works ; in the early days of the science of Assyriology 

 when he wrote, he was able to put forward theories which 

 in subsequent years scholars like Sir Henry Rawlinson 

 and Dr. Oppert were unable even to mention. Dr. Peters 

 starts, of course, with much better equipment than any 

 one of the three Mesopotamian explorers whose names we 

 have mentioned, for he has all their experience to help 

 him, and an enormous mass of archaeological facts, which 

 have been heaped up by several workers, at his free 

 disposal. Notwithstanding these advantages, his work 

 is not a scientific exposition of the results obtaiinfed ffom 

 the excavations by the expedition of which he Vj'as the 

 director, nor is it a very readable popular story, interest- 

 ing by reason of the personal details which it contains. 

 NO. 1498, VOL. 58] 



His two volumes are well printed and very fairly illus- 

 trated, and they have maps, an index, appendices, &c. 

 Dr. Peters must have given much time and attention 

 to the work before us, and those who are able to wade 

 through some hundreds of heavily-written pages will, of 

 course, thank him for it. It is not our intention to discuss 

 " Nippur " in detail, for many of the results obtained from 

 the excavations carried on at '.the city of this name by Dr. 

 Peters, and by his distinguished successor Mr. Haynes, 

 have already been made known by Prof. Hilprecht ; our 

 object is only to call attention to the excellent work 

 which the Americans have done by estabhshing a 

 Consulate at Baghdad, and by systematically working 

 through a site. 



Just as England owes its unrivalled collections of 

 Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities in the first instance 

 to the private initiative of the British Ambassador at 

 Constantinople about the year 1845, so the fine collections 

 of inscribed tabletsand other antiquities which America 

 now possesses are due to the private enterprise of some 

 of the principal citizens of Philadephia. The American 

 expedition was inaugurated by Mr. E. W. Clark, a 

 leading banker of that city, and the scheme was adopted 

 with great vigour and good-will by Dr. W. Pepper ; other 

 public-spirited men joined them, and their efforts have 

 been crowned with such success that up to the present 

 time nearly fifteen thousand pounds sterling have been 

 expended by America on archaeological researches in 

 Mesopotamia. The chief site of the work of the Amer- 

 icans was at Nippur or Niffer, a city which was situated 

 about fifty miles to the south-east of Babylon, and was 

 the centre of a great and flourishing civilisation some 

 seven thousand years ago. Some of the early explorers 

 had ascertained that the mounds which marked the site 

 of the old city contained remains of buildings, inscribed 

 tablets, &c., but the work of digging them out seriously 

 did not begin until Dr. Peters and Mr. Haynes arrived 

 on the scene. Dr. Peters toiled for several weeks at 

 Niffer in 1891 and 1892, and succeeded in clearing out 

 part of the great Temple of Bel, and in finding a large 

 number of inscribed tablets ; the two volumes before us 

 deal practically with the results of his labours. In 

 1893 Mr. Haynes took over the work, and was so for- 

 tunate as to light upon a " find " of thousands of tablets, 

 seals, and other important documents ; he was also 

 enabled to lay bare the ruins of the greater part of the 

 ancient city and its temple in such a way that we are now 

 able to understand the plan upon which an ancient pre- 

 Babylonian city was arranged and built. Many tablets 

 and other precious objects had, according to the terms of 

 the agreement between the Ottoman Museum authorities 

 and the Americans, to be sent to Constantinople ; but we 

 are glad to learn from Prof. Hilprecht's publications that 

 a substantial number have been allowed to cross the 

 Atlantic as a reward for the money and labour ex- 

 pended by the Americans at Niffer. It is to be hoped 

 that copies of all such documents may be made available 

 for scholars as soon as possible, and that other cunei- 

 form experts in America will follow the example which 

 Prof Hilprecht has set them. Meanwhile it is to be 

 hoped that a successor to Mr. Haynes and Dr. Peters 

 has been found, and that a good work so well begun 

 may be continued. 



