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

178 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
explored at an expense of $ 200,000 within a period of
twenty-five years. The results, though scarcely ever furnishing
a document referring to the life and person of Abraham,
— as has been expected, — will doubtless add many
fresh stones to the rising building of the early history of
Babylonia.
Previous to his second visit to Muqayyar, early in 1855,
Taylor excavated for a few days at two other ruins, called
Tell el-Lahm and Abu Shahrain. The former ruin, consisting
of two mounds of some height surrounded by a
number of smaller ridges and elevations, is situated three
hours to the south of Suq esh-Shiyukh, near the dry bed of
an ancient canal, and does not exceed half a mile in circumference.
Nothing of especial interest was discovered. But
Taylor exhumed numerous coffins formed of two
large jars
joined together by a bitumen cement, traced several pavements
constructed of baked bricks, occasionally bearing defaced
cuneiform characters, and found a perfect clay tablet,
so that the Babylonian origin, though not the early name
of the site, could be established beyond any reasonable
doubt.
Of greater
Shahrain, situated in
which separate it
importance were Tavlor's excavations at Abu
the desert bevond the sandstone bluffs
from Ur and the valley of the Euphrates,
but — strange to sav — very generally placed wrongly by
Assvriologists on the left side of " the great river," somewhere
opposite Suq esh-Shiyukh, 1 though its correct situa-
1
With whom this error started I do not know. We find it in Menant,
Babylo?ie et la Chaldee (1875), and Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies ?
(1881) — notwithstanding Taylor's very explicit statements to the contrarv.
George Rawlinson, "Five Great Monarchies," 4th ed., London,
1879, v °l- n -> ("Map of Mesopotamia," etc.) places Abu Shahrain correctly,
on the right side of the river, but too far to the south. About where
Tell el-Lahm is situated is Abu Shahrain, and where he has Abu Shahrain
is Tell el-Lahm. The ruins of Abu Shahrain, situated as they are in a deep
valley, cannot be seen from Muqavvar, nor are thev identical with Nowawis,