INTRODUCTION. 



I. 



THE LOWEST STRATA OF EKUR. 



The vast ruins of the temple of Bel are situated on the E. side of the now empty 

 hed of the Shatt-en-Nil, which divided the ancient city of Nippur into two distinct 

 parts. 1 At various times the space occupied by each of the two quarters differed in 

 size considerably from the other. Only during the last centuries before the Christian 

 era, when the temple for the last time had been restored and enlarged on a truly grand 

 scale by a king whose name is still shrouded in mystery, 2 both sides had nearly the 

 same extent. This became evident from an examination of the trial trenches cut in 

 different parts of the present ruins and from a study of the literary documents and 

 other antiquities obtained from their various strata. As long, however, as the temple 

 of Bel existed, the E. quarter of the city played the more important role in the history 

 of Nippur. 



Out of the midst of collapsed walls and buried houses, which originally encompassed 

 the sanctuary of Bel on all four sides and formed an integral part of the large temple en- 

 closure, there rises a conical mound to the height of 29 m. 3 above the plain and 15 m. above 

 the mass of the surrounding debris. It is called to-day Bint-el-Amir ("daughter of 

 the prince ") 4 by the Arabs of the neighborhood and covers the ruins of the ancient 

 ziggarratu or stage tower of Nippur, named Imgarsag 5 or Sagasli 6 in the cuneiform 



'Layard {Nineveh and Babylon, p. 551) and Loftus {Trawls and Researches, p. 101) stated this fact clearly. Not- 

 withstanding their accurate description, on most of our modern maps the site of the city is given inaccurately by 

 being confined to the E. side of the canal. 



2 He cannot have lived earlier than c. 500 B.C., and probably later. 



8 Loftus's estimate of seventy feet (I. c, p. 101) is too low. 



4 Layard, I. c, p. 557. Cf. Loftus, I. c, pp. 102f. 



'"Mountain of heaven," pronounced later Imursag. Cf. Jensen in Schrader's Keilinschriftliche Bibliotheh III, 

 Part 1, p. 22, note 5, and Hommel, Sumerische Lesestucke, p. 26, No. 306. 



6 " High towering " (on the ending sh cf. Hommel, I. c, p. 141, 2a). Cf. II B. 50, 5-6 a, b. A third name existed 

 but is broken away on this tablet (4 a). For Imgarsag cf. also IV B. 27, No. 2, 15 and 17. 

 A. P. S. — VOL. XVIII. 2 D. 



