CHIEFLY FROM NIPPUR. 259 



quity than JYaram-Sin's monuments, he characterized the relief which opens the splen- 

 did series of De Sarzec's finds (PI. I, No. 1), and has several points of contact with 

 the art exhihited in the stele of vultures, as " plus primitif, merae que celui de la 

 grossiere tablette du roi Our-Nina " [De Sarzec, I. c, PI. 1, No. 2], and as "une ceuvre 

 d'une antiquite prodigieuse, un monument des plus precieux, que nous devons le placer 

 avec respect tout a fait en tete des series orientales, comme le plus ancien example 

 connu de la sculpture, chaldeenne." These words of a true master of his subject have 

 found a splendid confirmation in the clay reliefs of Nippur just referred to, which 

 in their whole conception and execution show a striking resemblance to the oldest spe- 

 cimen of art recovered from Tello. They were found 7-7.70 m. below the level of 

 Naram-Sin's pavement, and within about 1.50 m. of the lowest trace of Babylonian 

 civilization. 1 Truly the genius and critical penetration of Heuzey could not have won 

 a more brilliant victory. 



o. In connection with my examination of the pre-Sargonic strata of Ekur, I twice 

 called attention to the fact that baked bricks found below Naram-Sin's pavement are 

 plano-convex in form. 2 I might have added that no other form of baked brick has so 

 far been discovered anywhere in the lowest strata of JSTippur, and that these bricks as 

 a rule bear a simple thumb mark upon their convex side. The form of these baked 

 bricks, until the contra ly has been proved, must therefore be regarded as a character- 

 istic feature of all structures previous to the time of Sargon I and Naram-Sin. It is 

 quite in accordance with this view that the only inscribed bricks of Tello which show 

 this peculiar form, bear the legend of Ur-Nina, whom on other evidence I placed before 

 Sargon and Naram-Sin. 



6. We draw a final and conclusive argument from a door-socket of Sargon him- 

 self. In Part I, PI. 14, Nos. 23-25, I published three brief legends of a king whom, 

 influenced by Pinches's reading (Garde), I read Gande (pp. 28 fl\), and whom I 

 regarded as identical with Gandash, the founder of the Cassite dynasty. All that I 

 brought forward in favor of this identity I herewith withdraw ; when I wrote those 



'Cf. above, p. 240, note 2. They will be published in Series B of the expedition work edited by myself. 



2 The bricks of the ancient curb around the altar, p. 288, and the bricks of the ancient arch, p. 240. In his report 

 of Oct. 26, 1895, Haynes refers to the discovery of a terra-cotta floor with a rim a little below the pavement of Naram- 

 SiD. He regards it as a combination of bath and closet, "proving that the present customs and methods of preparing 

 the body for worship, as practiced by Moslems [in the immediate neighborhood of their mosques], is of very great anti- 

 quity. The drainage from this floor was conducted into a large vertical tile drain, which is 2 m. long and has an 

 average diameter of 85 cm." This tile drain is "supported by a double course of bricks, plano-convex in form, with 

 finger marks on the convex side." For a specimen of Ur-Nina"s bricks cf. De Sarzec, I. c, PI. 31, No. 1. Specimens 

 of this class of Nippur biicks were given by Peters in The American Archaeological Journal X, p. 34 (two drawings 

 from the hand of the late Mr. Mayer, \ 20 Dec, 1894, in Bagdad). The peculiar shape of these bricks in the arch i3 

 scarcely distinguishable on PI. XXVIII of the present work. 



