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

228 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
pattern of Gudea's material, but bear the Babylonian name
Hadadnadinakhe(s) in late Aramean and early Greek characters,
from which the general age of this building was determined
to be about 300- 250 b. c, a result corroborated
by the fact that numerous coins with Greek legends of the
kings of Characene 1 were found in its ruins.
Both the inside of the palace and the open space immediately
before its principal facade were paved with burned
bricks of the same size and make-up as those in the walls
of the palace. These bricks did not rest directly upon the
large terrace of crude bricks, but upon a layer of earth two
to three feet deep mixed with sculptured fragments of an
early period.
In the centre of the platform before the palace
there stood upon a kind of pedestal an ancient trough or
manger, in limestone, about eight feet
long, one foot and a
half wide, and one foot deep. Being out of its original
position it had apparently been used by the later architects
to provide water for the guards stationed near the northeast
entrance of the palace. Its two small sides had preserved
traces of cuneiform writing of the style of the time of Gudea,
to whom this unique monument doubtless must be ascribed.
The two long sides, once exquisitely adorned with bas-reliefs,
had likewise suffered considerably from exposure. But
enough remained to recognize in them a living chain of
female figures, a " frieze of veritable Chaldean Naiads
through their union symbolizing the perpetuity of water."
A number of women, in graceful attitude, hold, in their outstretched
hands, magical vases which they evidently are passing
one to another. A double stream of water gushing forth
from each of these inexhaustible receptacles represents the
two sacred rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which, on
1
A district situated on the east bank of the Tigris, not very far from its
junction with the Euphrates.
2
Thus in his usual masterly manner characterized by Heuzey, Decouvertes,
p. 217 (comp. p. 43, note 1, of the same work).