CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUR. 237 



his stamped bricks 1 found under the platform of Ur-Gur, and the regular title bdni 2 

 Ekur bit Bil in Nippur occurring in all his inscriptions from Nuffar 3 indicate that 

 important structures, similar to those of his son, must have existed in some part of 

 these high and extended accumulations. The perplexing question is, at which partic- 

 ular spot have we to search for them ? And shall we ever really find them ? Just as 

 the bricks of Ur-Gur lie directly upon the splendid structure of Naram-Sin in the 

 large enclosing wall (Nimit-Marduk), so " the great crude brick platform of Ur-Gur's 

 ziggurrat practically rests upon Naram-Sin's pavement." 4 This fact is of importance, 

 for we draw the natural conclusion from it that all the buildings that once stood upon 

 this latter pavement were razed by Ur-Gur, in order to obtain a level ground for his 

 own extended brick pavement, which served as the new foundation for Ekur. 



THE PRE-SARGOiNTIC PERIOD. 



The average accumulations of debris above the pavement of Naram-Sin measure 

 a little over 11 m. in height and cover about 4000 years of Babylonian history. Have 

 any traces of an earlier temple beneath the pavement of the Sargon dynasty been 

 found in Nuffar? Several sections on the S.-E. side of the ziggurrat have been exca- 

 vated by Mr. Haynes down to the water level. 5 I am therefore fully prepared to make 

 the following statement, which will sound almost like a fairy tale in the ears of Assyr- 

 iologists and historians who have been accustomed to regard the kingdom of Sargon 

 as legendary and the person of Naram-Sin as the utmost limit of our knowledge of 

 ancient Babylonian history. The accumulations of debris from ruined buildings, partly 

 preserved drains, broken pottery and many other remnants of human civilization 

 between Naram-Sin's platform and the virgin soil below, are not less than 9.25 m. 

 The age of these ruins and what they contain can only be conjectured at the present 



'The fragment of the first Sargon brick excavated in Nuffar at the beginning of 1894 is published on PI. XXI, 

 No. 63. It proves that Sargon did not only stamp his legend upon the bricks but sometimes wrote it. For a stamped 

 specimen cf. Part III. 



2 Written ba- 01M= (ba-)bani or (fia-)ban, in other words expressed by an ideogram and preceding phonetic com- 

 plement (the earliest example of this kind in Semitic cuneiform texts). Cf. Hilprecht, Assyriaca, p. 70, note (end). 

 Examples for this peculiar use of a phonetic complement are extremely rare and will be found in Assyriacti, Part II. 



3 Pis. 1-3, Nos. 1-3. 



4 Haynes, Report of Aug. 3, 1895. In advance I warn all those who seem to know Babylonian chronology 

 better (?!) than KingNabonidos of Babylon, not to use this fact against the king's 3200 years, and to keep in mind 

 that also Ur-Gur, Kadashman-Turgu and Ashurbanapal follow each other immediately in their work at the ziggurrat. 



5 To illustrate the amount of time, patience and labor needed for the systematic exploration of these lowest strata, 

 it may be mentioned that one of the sections excavated contained "more than 60,000 cubic feet " of earth, which had 

 to be carried away in basketfuls a distance of 120 m. and at the same time to be raised to a height of 15-24 m. Haynes, 

 Report of Oct. 5, 1895. 



A. P. S. — YOL. XVIII. 2 E. 



