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

DURING V-'Hi CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 151
ancient Erech above others, establishing even a kingdom
of their own in those regions. The large stratum of intentionally
broken inscribed vases, statues, reliefs, and other
objects of art of the earliest Babylonian period surrounding
the temple court of Nippur, which I have shown to be the
results of revengeful Klamite destruction, indicates what we
may expect to find in the middle strata of Warka. In order
to reach these deeper strata, a heavy superincumbent mass
of rubbish and funereal remains, representing a period of
about one thousand years after the fall of the Neo-Babylonian
empire, has to be examined and removed.
In itself, any ancient city continuously inhabited for at
least 5000 years, and repeatedly occupied by hostile armies, as
Erech was, must be regarded as a site most unfavorable to
the discovery of large and well preserved earlier antiquities.
As a rule these latter, if escaping the vicissitudes of war,
have been transferred from generation to generation until
they were consumed or damaged in their natural continued
use, while others, perhaps intact at
the time when they were
hidden under collapsing walls, have been frequentlv afterwards
brought to light in
connection with the thousands of
later burials. No longer understood or appreciated by the
inhabitants of a subsequent age, and frequentlv also of
another race and religion, they were often intentionally
broken and employed in a manner quite different from their
original purpose.
In addition to the points just mentioned, the natural
conditions around Warka are even worse than at Nuffar.
From February or March to July the inundations of the
Euphrates extend frequentlv almost to the very base of
the ruins. The swamps thus formed are swarming with innumerable
mosquitoes, which, with the even more dreaded
sand-flies of the surrounding desert, render the life of the
explorer extremely miserable. Towards the latter part of
the summer the waters recede. The human system, being