240 OLD BABYLONIAN INSCRIPTIONS 



~No. 73. J The bricks of which it is constructed are well baked, plano-convex in shape, 

 and laid in clay mortar, the convex side being turned upward. A few months after 

 its discovery the arch was forced out of shape, " probably from the unequal pressure 

 of the settling mass above it, which had been drenched with rain water." 



Whether the altar, the two large vases and the massive building, under which the 

 ancient arch was found, had any original connection with each other, is at present 

 impossible to prove. Accoiding to my calculations and our latest news from the field 

 of excavation, the bottom of the lower vase and the foundation of the massive build- 

 ing were not on the same level. The difference between them is nearly 0.5 m. As 

 the highest vase, however, stood 77 cm. above the other, and as the section S.-B. from 

 them has not yet been excavated, it is highly probable that a third vase stood at some 

 distance below the second. However this may be, so much we can infer from the 

 facts obtained even now, that an inclined passage from the plain led alongside the 

 two vases to the elevated enclosure around the solitary altar. I am therefore disposed 

 to assign to the tower-like building, the character of which is still shrouded in mys- 

 tery, the same age as the altar, curb and vases. The keystone arch and drain, on the 

 other hand, are doubtless of a higher antiquity. Whether the 3200 years given by 

 Nabonidos as the period which elapsed between his own government and that of 

 Sargon I, be correct or not, the arch cannot be placed lower than 4000 B.C., and in all 

 probability it is a good deal older. 



The two sections which contained all the buildings and objects described above 

 were carried down to the virgin soil, where water stopped our progress. A third 

 section removed in their neighborhood yielded similar results. But it is impossible to 

 enumerate in detail all the antiquities which were uncovered below the S.-E. side of 

 the ziggurrat. The lowest strata did not furnish any treasures similar to those found 

 in the upper layers; they showed a large proportion of black ashes and fine charcoal 

 mingled with earth, but they also produced many smaller objects of great interest and 

 value, especially fragments of copper, bronze and terra-cotta vessels. Several pieces 

 of baked clay steles, bearing human figures in relief upon their surface, will be treated 

 at another place and time. 2 An abundance of fragments of red and black lacquered 



1 A kind of pointed arch of unbaked brick (60 cm. high and 48 cm. wide at the bottom) was found by Haynes in 

 mound X (cf. PI. XV), on the S. W. side of the canal bed. From the depth in which it was discovered, Haynes 

 reasoned correctly that it was older than 2000 B.C. From the inscribed objects excavated in connection with it, I 

 determined that it must have existed at the time of the dynasty of Isin (c. 2500 B.C.). In all probability it dates back 

 to Ur-Gur's period. For the wall in which this arch is placed was built of the same sun-dried bricks which compose 

 the body of the ziggurrat (Haynes, Reports of April 27, Dec. 21, 1893). Tor the general form of this pointed arch 

 cf. Perrot and Chipiez, I. c, p. 229, Fig. 92. 



2 One of them was found at a depth of 7 m. below the pavement of Naram-Sin and 2.44 m. lower than the bottom 

 of the aich, within about 2 m. of the lowest trace of civilization (Haynes, Report of Sept. 7, 1895). Another was 

 discovered 7.70 m. below Naiam-Sin's pavement (Report of Sept. 14, 1895). 



