Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING 1!)'" CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 141
former dense population, and for the first time they had
closely examined these lofty and massive piles covered with
fragments of stone and broken pottery, which loom up in
solitary grandeur from the surrounding plains and marshes
of ancient Chaldea. The ruins of Nuffar, Hammam, Tell
Ruins of Tell
Hammam
(J)ide, Warka, Muqayyar, and others became at once centres
of general interest, and were rescued forever from the
oblivion of past centuries.
Loftus' enthusiastic report of all the wonderful things
which he had seen, illustrated by careful sketches and plans
and by a number of small antiquities picked up on the
surface of the various mounds, or purchased for a trifle
from the neighboring Arabs, impressed Colonel Williams
so favorably that he readily listened to the suggestions ot
the bold explorer " that excavations should be conducted
on a small scale at Warka."
After a few davs' rest, we find