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

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DURING 10 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 219
His excavations were carried on in eleven distinct campaigns,
generally lasting from three to four months in
winter and spring.
With regard to the three great intervals
lying between them, they might be grouped together into
four different periods, each of which is characterized by some
more or less conspicuous discovery: i. 1877, 1878, 1880,
1881; 11. 1888, 1889; in. 1893, 1894, 1895; IV - l8 9 8 >
1900. But as the excavations conducted by De Sarzec at
Tello in the later years consisted mainly in deepening and
extending the trenches previously opened at the two principal
elevations of the ruins, a mere chronological enumeration
of all his single discoveries would neither do justice
to the explorer, nor enable us to comprehend the importance
of the results obtained in their final totality, as well
as in their mutual relation to each other. It will therefore
be preferable to consider the excavations from an historical
and a topographical point of view at the same time. In
this way we shall be enabled to preserve the unity of the subject
and to avoid unnecessary repetitions. Accordingly we
distinguish three phases in the excavations of De Sarzec
1. His preliminary work of determining the character of the
whole ruins by trial trenches, 1877-78 ; 2. The excavation
of a Seleucidan palace and of ancient Babylonian remains,
especially a fine collection of large statues at the principal
mound of Tello, 1880-81; 3. The unearthing of constructions,
sculptures and inscriptions of a still
earlier civilization
in another prominent mound of the same ruins, 1888-89,
1893-95, 1898, 1900.
1. The ruins of Tello, or more correctly Tell-Lo, 1 are situated
in a district which is half the year a desert and the
other half a swamp, about eight miles to the northeast of
Shatra, a small Turkish town and the seat of a qaimmaqam,
1
The meaning and etymology of Tello is obscure. An attempt by the
late Dr. Schefer of Paris to explain the name is found in Heuzey, D'ecouvertes
en Chald'ee par Ernest de Sarzec, p. 8, note 1.