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

DURING I!" 1 ' CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 157
Unfortunately the excavations so successfully begun at
Senkere and Tell Sifr came to a sudden end. The continued
advance of the marshes trom the overflowing of the
Shatt el-Kar indicated very plainly that in a few weeks the
whole of Southern Babylonia would be covered with inundations.
terribly suffered
The Arabs, who for several successive years had
from lack of water and food, and therefore
were anxious to cultivate their patches of land, rapidly decreased
the necessary forces in
the trenches by their frequent
desertions. In order not to be finally left alone with his
excavated treasures on an isolated mound surrounded bv the
Chaldean swamps, Loftus was forced to sacrifice
his personal
wishes and return to the huphrates, much to his regret
quitting the South Babylonian mounds, the real character
and contents of which he had been the first to disclose to
the public.
SIR AUSTEN HENRY LAYARD
The next to appear on the unexplored ground in the
South was Henry Lavard. A long experience in the
trenches of Nimrud and Oovunjuk had qualified him above
others for the exploration of the mounds in ancient Babylonia.
Besides, he was well acquainted with the life and
manners of the Arabs, and not unfamiliar with the peculiarities
of 'Iraq el-'Arabi as a whole. For in connection with
his early adventures in Luristan and Khuzistan he had
visited Baghdad repeatedly, and in Arab or Persian disguise
he had travelled
even among the lawless tribes of the
districts adjoining the two rivers to the east and west as far
down as Oorna and Basra. Prevented hitherto bv lack of
means from carrying out his old and comprehensive scheme
of " excavating many remarkable sites both in Chaldea and
Susiana," he was
to a limited extent.
finally enabled to gratify his ardent desire
Apparently influenced in their decision
by the encouraging results of Loftus' first tentative work at