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

DURING 19TB. CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 149
excavations were conducted, thus proving the correctness of
Loftus' theory that " they were undoubtedly much used
as an architectural decoration " in
ancient Chaldea.
Another extraordinary mode of decoration in
architecture
was found in a mound near Wuswas. Upon a basement or
terrace of mud-brick there rose a long wall entirely composed
of unbaked bricks and conical vases, fragments of the
latter being scattered all about the surface in its neighborhood.
The arrangement was as follows: "Above the foundation
were a few layers of mud-bricks, and superimposed
on which were three rows of these vases, arranged horizontally,
mouths outward, and immediately above each other.
This order of brick and pot work was repeated
was succeeded upwards by a mass of unbaked bricks.
thrice, and
The
vases vary in size from ten to fifteen inches in length, with
a general diameter at the mouth of four inches. The cup
or interior is only six inches deep, consequently the conical
end is solid." One can easily imagine the very strange and
striking effect produced by these circular openings of the
vases, the original purpose and age of which Loftus was
unable to ascertain.
On the east side of the Buweriye he excavated a terrace
paved with bricks " inscribed in slightly relieved cuneiform
characters " containing the name of Cambyses, while half a
mile southeast of the former, in a small detached mound,
he found a
large mass of broken columns, capitals, cornices,
and many other relics of rich internal decoration — all belonging
to the Parthian period.
Important portable
antiquities of early Babylonian times
were unfortunately not disclosed by the explorer. Yet his
excavations were by no means entirely lacking in literary
documents and other valuable archaeological objects, though
mostly of a comparatively late period. As most conspicuous
among them may be mentioned less than a hundred socalled
contract
12
tablets of the Neo-Babvlonian, Persian, and