DISCOVERIES IN BABYLONIA AND THE NKIGHBOUKING LANDS. 113 



ruins ha^'e but a slight elevation above the surrounding soil, 

 nowhere exceeding 40 feet, and the Head of the expedition to 

 Adab, Dr. Edgar J. Banks, describes them as a series of 

 parallel ridges, about a mile and a half wide, divided into two 

 parts by the bed of an old canal — the source of the city's 

 ancient habitability. 



On the summit of the temple-tower being cleared, an 

 inscription of Dungi, 2750 B.C., was found, and this discovery 

 was followed by that of one of the time of Sur-Engur, 2800 B.C. 

 Still lower they came upon a crumpled piece of gold of the time 

 of Naram-Sin, and just below that the large square bricks 

 peculiar to the time of Sargon of Agade became visible. At a 

 depth of S-J metres the explorers lighted on two large urns 

 filled with ashes, and two metres lower still a smaller urn. 

 Virgin soil was reached at 14 metres, at which depth the 

 deposits consisted of thrown pottery of graceful design. These 

 Di'. Banks regards as belonging to the most remote period of 

 Babylonian civilization, nnmely, 10,000 years ago, or earlier. 



Other noteworthy antiquities were found on the site, among 

 them being a head with a pointed beard, of a type which the 

 finder regards as distinctly Semitic. The face is long and thin, 

 and eyeballs of ivory had been inserted by means of bitumen 

 in the eye-sockets made to receive them. This type is 

 regarded as being new to the student of Babylonian art, and 

 clearly distinct from the round beardless head of the Sunierian 

 statues. Another object is a vase of blue stone carved with a 

 procession of grotesque long-nosed figures, headed by two 

 musicians playing upon harps. The garments and jewellery, 

 and even the foliage of the background, were originally 

 represented by inlaid work, but with the exception of a piece 

 of ivory which formed the dress of one of the figures, and a 

 few fragments of lapis-lazuli in a branch of a tree, these 

 have all disappeared. Numerous important fragments of vases 

 were also found, and a sea-shell used as a lamp will probably 

 shed light on the origin of the shape of early lamps. 



In a trench at the western corner of the temple-tower the 

 explorer practically dug out with his own hands an exceedingly 

 interesting statue bearing the name of Daud, an early 

 Sunierian king. Notwithstanding what may have been said on 

 the subject, this is probably not an early occurrence of the name 

 David, v/hich, in Arabic, has that form. The statue was 

 headless, but the head was found a month later, in company 

 with another head, in the same trench, a hundred feet away. 

 The temple excavated on this site bears the same name as that of 



