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

DURING 19 1" CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 175
The discovery of these documents was of the greatest
importance for Biblical history in another way. The inscriptions
upon all of them closed with a poetical prayer for
the life of the king's oldest son, Bel-shar-usur, who is no
other than the Biblical Belshazzar (Dan. 5), appointed by
Ruins of the Temple of Sin at Muqayyar
his father as co-regent, defeated by Cyrus near Opis, and
murdered soon after the conquest of Babylon.
In a small hill close to the southeast corner of the large
ruin Taylor unearthed a regular house built of large inscribed
bricks upon a platform of sun-dried bricks. Some of the
burnt bricks were remarkably fine, having a thin coating
of enamel or gypsum on which the cuneiform characters
had been stamped, — the first example of this kind known.
From the northwest corner of the mud wall he obtained a
small black stone inscribed on both sides, from which it can
be inferred that the building dates back to
the third millennium.
At a depth considerably below this building, he came
upon a pavement consisting of bricks fourteen inches long,
eight and a half wide, and three and a half thick, " most of