CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUR. 



247 



dynasty of Ur and the beginning- of the Cassite rale in Babylonia. The history of the 

 temple of Bel during this period is enveloped in absolute darkness. No single monu- 

 ment of the members of the so-called first and second Babylonian dynasties has yet 

 been excavated in Nuffar. Apparently our temple did not occupy a very prominent 

 place during their government. And how could it be otherwise ? Their rule marks 

 the period of transition from the ancient central cult of Bel in Nippur to the new 

 rising cult of Marduk in Babylon. Bel had to die that Mardnk might live and take- 

 ins place in the religious life of the united country. Even the brief renaissance of the 

 venerable cult of " the father of the gods " under the Cassite sway did not last very 

 long. It ceased again as soon as the national uprising under the dynasty of Pashe 

 led to the overthrow of the foreign invaders, who had extolled the cult of Bel at the 

 expense of Marduk in Babylon, 1 and to the restoration of Semitic power and influence 

 in Babylonia, until under the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanapal a last 

 attempt was made to revive the much neglected temple service in the sanctuary of 

 Nippur. 



5. The breaking and scattering of the vases point to a foreign invasion and to a 

 period of great political disturbance in the country. No Babylonian despot, however 

 ill-disposed toward an ancient cult, and however unscrupulous in the means taken to 

 suppress it, would have dared to commit such an outrage against the sacred property 

 of the temple of Bel. In all probability therefore the ancient archive chamber of the 

 temple was ransacked and destroyed at the time of the Elamitic invasion (c. 2285 B.C.), 

 when Kudur-Nankhundi and his hordes laid hands on the temples of Shumer and Akkad. 

 That which in the eyes of these national enemies of Babylonia appeared most valu- 

 able among its contents was carried to Susa 2 and other places ; what did not find favor 

 with them was smashed and scattered on the temple court adjoining the storehouse. 

 From the remotest time until then apparently most gifts had been scrupulously pre- 

 served and handed down from generation to generation. Only those movable objects 

 which broke accidentally in the regular service, or which'purposely were buried in con- 

 nection with religious rites, may be looked for in the lowest strata of Ekur. 



AGE OF THE INSCRIBED MONUMENTS. 



Having explained why the most ancient documents so far excavated in Nuffar were 

 found in pieces above the platform of Ur-Gur's ziggurrat, I now proceed to determine 

 the general age of these antiquities and their relation to the inscriptions of Sargon I. 



l Cf. Parti, pp. 30 f. 

 2 Cf. Parti, p. 31. 



