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

DURING l'JTii CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 143
without breaking. The surface of the coffin having been
carefully cleaned, inside and out, thick
layers of paper were
pasted on both sides. When thoroughly dried, this hard
mass became like a sheath, strengthening and protecting the
enclosed coffin, which now could be lifted
and handled without
difficulty. Many years later, in connection with the
University of Pennsylvania's excavations at Nuffar, the same
method was often employed with the same general result,
and more than fifty coffins were carried away "whole" to
Europe and America. Yet after a long experience I have
definitely abandoned this method as unsatisfactory and most
damaging to the blue enamel of the object thus treated.
It is by far wiser to save and pack all the fragments of
glazed coffins separately and to put them together at home
in a strictly scientific manner. Yet for the time being
Loftus might well feel
proud of having been able to secure
the first three complete Babylonian coffins, then still unknown
to European scholars. Under the dances and yells
of his Tuwaiba Arabs, frantic with delight and excitement,
they were carried with numerous other antiquities to the
Museum.
river, whence they were shipped to the British
Towards the end of 1853 Loftus returned to the ruins ot
Babylonia for the last
time, in charge of an expedition sent
out by the " Assyrian Excavation Fund " of London and
accompanied by his
two friends, W. Boutcher and T. Ken-
Lynch. In order to secure him greater facilities, he was
soon afterwards appointed by his government an attache of
the conspicuous mound of
the British Embassy at Constantinople. It was his intention
to commence operations at
Hammam, where in connection with a former visit he had
found the large fragments of a fine but intentionally defaced
statue in black granite. But the utter lack of water in the
Shatt el-Kar interfered seriously with his plans.
Compelled,
therefore, to seek another locality, he decided at once to
resume the excavation of Warka, where he had won his first