CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUR. 235 



bricks, was raised to an unknown height. 1 We may well ask in amazement, "Who was 

 the builder of this gigantic wall, constructed, as it seems, ana um sate f Nobody else 

 than the great Karam-Sin, whom Niebuhr of Berlin finds hard to regard as a histori- 

 cal person ! Perhaps this scholar will now release me from presenting " wirkliche 

 Inschriften politischer und als solcher glaubhafter 2 Natur, damit man ihrer [namely, 

 Sargon's and !Naram-Sin's] einstmaligen Existenz vollkommen traue." 3 The bricks 

 had exactly the same abnormal size as the burned bricks of the pavement below the 

 ziggurrat and, in addition, although unbaked, bore Naram-Sin's usual stamped inscrip- 

 tion of three lines. " They are dark gray in color, firm in texture and of regular form. 

 In quality they are unsurpassed by the work of any later king, constituting by far the 

 most solid and tenacious mass of unbaked brick that we have ever attempted to cut 

 our way through." 4 A large number of " solid and hollow terra-cotta cones in great 

 variety of form and color," 5 and many fragments of water spouts were found in the 

 debris at the bottom of the decaying wall. The former, as in Erech, 6 were used for 

 decoration, the latter apparently for the drainage of the rampart. 7 Possibly there 

 were buildings of some kind on the spacious and airy summit of the wall, 8 although 

 nothing points definitely to their previous existence. 



'I Lave summarized the details of Haynes's report, according to which the original base was c. 5 m. high and 

 c. 10.75 m. wide. " Directly upon this foundation Naram-Sin began to build his wall, 10.75 m. wide and six coursea 

 high. For some reason unknown to us, the builder changed his plan at this point and widened the wall by an addition 

 of c. 3 m. in thickness to the inner face of the wall, making the entire thickness or width of the wall c. 13.75 m. 

 This addition, like the original foundation, was built of worked clay mixed with cut straw, and from the clay bed was 

 built up to the top of the moulded brick wall, making a new and wider base, c. 5.5 m. high by c. 13.75 m. wide. Upon 

 this new and widened base a new wall of equal width was built by Naram-Sin, whose stamped bricks attest his work- 

 manship. In the construction of the original base, c. 5 m. high and c. 10.75 in. wide, there is nothing to furnish a clue 

 to its authorship" (Report of August 3, 1895). In the same letter Haynes argues very plausibly, as follows : " Had 

 the superstructure been built upon the original base, as it was begun, it would naturally appear that the entire struc- 

 ture from its foundation was the work of Naram-Sin ; yet because Naram-Sin changed the proportions of the wall, it 

 may with some show of reason be assumed that Naram-Sin himself began to build upon the foundation of a prede- 

 cessor, perhaps of his father Sargon.with the intention of completing the original design, and that his own ideas then 

 began to fix upon a different or at least upon a larger plan requiring a wider base to build upon." 



2 1 am afraid Niebuhr's use of " politisch " und " glaubhaft " as two corresponding terms is very " unhistorisch." 

 Apparently he has a very curious conception of the significance of an inscribed Babylonian brick as a historical doc- 

 ument over against the " political inscriptions " too often subjectively colored. Cf. Maspero, The Dawn of Civiliza- 

 tion, p. 626, with whom I agree. 



3 Carl Niebuhr, I. c, p. 75. 



4 Haynes, Report of Sept. 8, 1895. 



5 "Red and black color are abundant. The hollow cones are of larger size than the solid cones" (Report of July 

 27, 1895). 



6 Cf. Loftus, I. c, p. 187ff. 



'It is doubtful whether the cones and spouls belonged to NaramSin's or Ur-Gur's structure; the water spouts 

 point to the time of the former, however. 



8 Haynes inclines strongly to the view that there existed "a tier of rooms flush with the outer face of the wall, 

 and a broad terrace before them overlooking the great enclosure" (Report of Aug. 3, 1895). This view is closely 



