CHIEFLY PROM NIPPUR. 227 



borhood of Tello, and were catalogued by the undersigned writer. His Excellency, 

 Dr. Hamdy, Director General, and his accomplished brother, Dr. Halil, Director of 

 the Archaeological Museum on the Bosphorus, who in many ways have efficiently pro- 

 moted the work of the American Expedition, and who by their energetic and intelli- 

 gent efforts have placed the rapidly growing Ottoman Museum on a new, scientific 

 basis, deserve my heartiest thanks for permitting the publication of these texts, and 

 for many other courtesies and personal services rendered during my repeated visits to 

 the East. 



For determining the mineralogical character of the several stones, I am greatly 

 indebted to my colleagues, Profs. Drs. E. Smith and A. P. Brown, of the University 

 of Pennsylvania. 



The systematic excavations of the last decenniums have revolutionized the study 

 of ancient history and philology, and they have opened to us long-forgotten centuries 

 and millenniums of an eventful past. Hieroglyphics and cuneiform inscriptions were 

 deciphered by human ingenuity, and finally the brilliant reasoning and stupendous 

 assiduity of Jensen in Marburg have forced the " Hittite " sphinx to surrender 

 her long-guarded secret. He who has taken the pains to read and read again and 

 analyze the results of Jensen's extraordinary work critically and sine ira et studio, 

 must necessarily arrive at the conclusion as to the general correctness of his system. 

 I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I see the day not very far, when the 

 world will wonder — -just as we wonder now when we glance back upon the sterile years 

 following Grotefend's great achievement — that at the close of the nineteenth century 

 years could elapse before Jensen's discovery and well-founded structure created 

 any deep interest and received that general attention which it deserves. The beautiful 

 marble slab recently found near Malatia 1 has offered a welcome opportunity to test the 

 validity of his theory. But the great desideratum seems to be more material than is 

 at present at our disposal. Excavations in the mounds of Malatia would doubtless 

 yield it. But what European government, what private citizens, will furnish the 

 necessary funds ? May the noble example given by a few liberal gentlemen of Phila- 

 delphia find a loud echo in other parts of the world, and may the work which they 

 themselves have begun and carried on successfully and systematically for several 

 years in Nippur, never lack that hearty support and enthusiasm which characterized 

 its past history. The high-towering temple of Bel is worthy of all the time and labor 



'May 23, 1894, together with two other smaller fragments, and now safely deposited in the Imperial Ottoman Mu- 

 seum. With Hamdy Bey's permission published in Hilprecht, Recent Research in Bible Lands, p. 160. Cf. also Ho- 

 garth in Recueil, XVII, p. 25 f. The inscription cannot be older than 750-700 B.C. The artist took as his motive a 

 huDting scene from the royal palaces of Nineveh. A critical analysis of the well-preserved text will be given by Jen- 

 sen in the next number of Recueil. 



