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Pi 



place, may have given 

 the clue to the identifica- 

 tion of the ancient city. 



NEBUCHADNEZZAR 

 DELVES INTO THE PAST 



For example, on a cyl- 

 inder found at Wana- 

 Sedoum, now in the Yale 

 Collection, which is one 

 of several of its kind 

 made by the royal scribe 

 of Nebuchadnezzar (605- 

 561 B. C), the king re- 

 counts his restorations 

 of various temples (page 

 183). In the closing 

 lines he refers to his re- 

 storation of the temple 

 of Lugal - Mara da at 

 Marad, a city which has 

 not been hitherto identi- 

 fied, as follows : 



"From distant days its 

 old foundation stone no 

 previous king had seen. 

 Its old foundation stone 

 I sought for, I beheld, 

 and upon the foundation 

 stone of King Naram- 

 Sin, my ancient ancestor 

 (who lived about 3750 

 B. C), I laid its founda- 

 tion. An inscription with 

 my name I made and 

 placed in the midst of it." 



Recently there was 

 also added to the Yale 

 Collection an inscribed 

 stone, written in the an- 

 cient script, which came 

 from the same site as the 

 Nebuchadnezzar cylin- 

 der, namely, Wana-Se- 

 doum. It proves to be 

 one of the stones of 

 Naram-Sin which Nebu- 

 chadnezzar saw. It re- 

 fers to the building of 

 the temple of Lugal- 

 Marada at Marad by a 

 hitherto unknown son of 

 Naram - Sin, namel y, 

 Libet-ili, who was then 

 patesi of Marad. It 

 reads : 



"Naram-Si n, the 

 mighty king of the four 



