392 EXCA VA TIOXS A T XIPP UK 



produced exceeded by eight or nine feet any previous flood which 

 has visited the city of Galveston, and the almost irresistible force 

 of the enormous waves, together with the strength of the hurricane 

 winds, resulted in a disaster which is without a precedent in the his- 

 tory of the United States. 



Assuming that the reading of the barometer reported at Galveston 

 the evening of the 8th was approximately correct, the hurricane at 

 that point was of almost unparalleled severity. The future possi- 

 bility of a like visitation in that locality is extremely remote. 



EXCAVATIONS AT NIPPUR 



Many important discoveries have been made during the past 

 eleven years by various expeditions exc.u'ating in Baij^'lonia under 

 the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania. Nippur has been 

 identified witii ancient Calneh, mentioned in the Book of Genesis 

 (chapter x, verse 10), and the histor\' revealed of Babylonian civil- 

 ization during a period more than seven thousand years before Cl)ri.-it ; 

 but the present year has witnessed the most extensive and valual)ie 

 discoveries yet made. 



These discoveries are three: The 1 library of the great temple at 

 Nippur has been located and opened. Seventeen thousand tablets 

 covered with cuneifonn writing have been taken out, and Professor 

 Hilprecht, the able leader of the part}', asserts that 150,000 additional 

 tablets are waiting to be uncovered. These tablets are of special 

 value because of their national character; upon them are written 

 the myths and tales of the ancient wars of the Babylonians and 

 their rules of language, of mathematics and astronomy. The library 

 was of great renown in early Bab^donia ; it was their great college of 

 law and religion. 



Under 70 feet of rubbish, the accumulations of as many centuries, 

 Professor Hilprecht found in the southwestern section of the city a 

 palace with 600 feet frontage, probabl}' the dwelling of the priest 

 kings of Nippur. In the rooms excavated, pre-Sargonic tablets, seal 

 cylinders of the earliest type, and clay figurines were found. The 

 walls of Nippur were uncovered for several score yards, and every- 

 where, especially in the lower strata, weapons of curious devices were 

 unearthed, showing the methods which besieging armies used in those 

 ancient times. 



