CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUR. 243 



body of Ur-Gur's ziggurrat and platform. How is this discrepancy to be explained? 

 By the simple assertion, suggested already by the absence of a door in the walls of the 

 building, that the room was underground, a cellar reaching from the top of Ur-Gur's 

 platform down to the level of Naram-Sin's pavement. 1 The access from above being 

 on the Ur-Gur level, it is clear that the vault was built by this king himself. Our 

 interest, in the unearthed building is still increased by the discovery of another smaller 

 room of exactly the same construction and material below it. Separated from the 

 later vault by a layer of earth and dehris 60 cm. deep, it lies wholly below the level 

 of ISTaram-Sin's platform. In its present form this lower cellar cannot, however, 

 antedate Sargon, nor was it built by this king himself or by his immediate successor. 

 From the fact that the bricks of both rooms are identical "in size, form and general 

 appearance," 3 and that a brick stamp of Sargon was discovered beneath the founda- 

 tions of the lower walls, we draw the following conclusions : (1) At the time of Sargon 

 a cellar existed at this very spot, as indicated by the presence of his stamp below the 

 level of his dynasty ; 4 (2) Ur-Gur found and used this cellar, but rebuilt it entirely 

 with his own bricks. And as he raised the foundation of his ziggurrat far above the 

 old level, he also raised the walls of the old chamber to the height of his new platform. 

 (3) For some unknown reason — probably because the pressure of the neighboring 

 temple fortifications from above, together with the yearly rains, the principal enemies 

 of Babylonian sun-dried brick structures, had ruined the vault 5 — he changed its foun- 

 dation afterwards and laid it on a higher level, at the same time widening the space 

 between its two longer walls. 



It can be easily proved that this underground building was the ancient storeroom 

 or archive of the temple. " A ledge c. 0.5 m. wide and 0.75 m. above the floor extended 

 entirely around the room, serving as a shelf for the storage of objects in due form aud 

 order." 3 "A circular clay tablet together with two small tablets of the ordinary form 

 and five fragments were found on it," 7 and five brick stamps without handles were 

 lying within its walls. And finally a similar room filled with about 30,000 clay tab- 

 lets, inscribed pebbles, cylinders, statues, etc., was discovered by de Sarzec, 1894, in a 



1 The height of its walls agrees with the distance between the tops of Ur-Gur's and Naram-Sin's platforms. 



2 It is only 2.15 m. wide, and the walls are 92 cm. high in their present ruined condition. 

 3 Haynes, Report of Dec. 14, 1895. 



4 Cf. above, p. 235, note 2. 



5 On this theory it can be easily explained why a few tablets were found on the ledge of the lower room and 

 brick stamps without handles were discovered on the floor of the same room. 



6 Haynes, Report of Dec. 14, 1895. This ledge existed in both chambers. It was built up with the walls and 

 consisted of crude bricks capped by a layer of burned bricks (Report of Dec. 21, 1895). 



'In the lower vault (Haynes, Report of Dec. 21, 1895). In the midst of this lower chamber was " a hemispheri- 

 cal basin of pottery set in a rim of stone," the original use of which is still unknown (Report of Dec. 14, 1895). 



