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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 205
giving him, in addition, the privilege of retaining all the
antiquities found except duplicates, after their mere formal
inspection by an imperial commissioner.
It was a comparatively easy task for Rassam to excavate
under such favorable conditions and supported by a powerful
friend. The remarkable results which accompanied his
labors in Babylonia will be treated later. The method fol-«
lowed was everywhere the same. Owing to the large geographical
area included in his permit it was impossible for
him to superintend all the excavations in person. As a rule
he directed them only from the distance, sometimes not visiting
the same ruin for weeks and months, and in a few cases
even for a whole year.
During his absence from 'Iraq, the
British Resident at Baghdad undertook a general control of
his excavations in Babylonia, while at Mosul his nephew,
Nimrud Rassam, acted most of the time as his agent in connection
with the operations conducted on several Assyrian
sites. A number of intelligent native overseers, among
whom a certain Daud Toma plaved a conspicuous role as
his representative at
Babvlon, carried on the work as well as
they could and as far as possible in accordance with their
master's instructions.
One can easily imagine how unsatisfactory
such an arrangement must prove in the end, as
diametrically opposed to all sound principles of a strict scientific
investigation and in part as contrarv to the very explicit
instructions received from the British Museum. It
was the old system of pillage in
a new and enlarged edition.
Nobody recognized and felt this more than Hamdy Bey, to
whom we must be truly grateful for sparing no efforts to stop
this antiquated and obnoxious system immediately after the
termination of Rassam's concession in 1882. Through his
energetic measures, which led to a complete reorganization
of the Ottoman laws of excavation, henceforth no person
received permission to explore more than one ancient ruin
at the same time, and this only with the express stipulation