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

230 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
end, so that he was then unable to arrive at a definite conclusion
concerning its true character. But in connection with
his later campaigns he also resumed his excavations at the
lower strata of Mound A, discovering that the remains which
had puzzled him so much before belonged to the tower of
a fortified enclosure.
that one side of the latter showed the
In digging along its base, he established
same simple pattern
as the two facades of the Parthian building, — in other
words, those peculiar architectural ornaments which the
ancient Babylonians and Assyrians reserved
exclusivelv for
exterior decoration. Soon afterwards he excavated a large
gate with three stepped recesses, which on the one hand was
flanked by the tower, while on the other side its wall was
lost in the later building. 1
All the bricks taken from this fortified enclosure were in
their original position, and bore the inscription "
: To Nin-
Girsu, the powerful champion of Bel, Gudea, patesi of
S/iir-pur-la, accomplished something worthy,
built the temple
Eninnu-Imgig(-gu)barbara 2 and restored it."
This legend
and similar statements occurring on the statues in dolerite and
on other votive objects rescued from the same part of the
ruins, the fact that Mound A represents the
most extensive
single hill of Tello, and several other considerations, lead
necessarily to the conclusion that the ancient structure lying
below the Seleucidan palace and partly worked into it can
only be Eninnu, the chief sanctuary of the
Babylonian city,
sacred to Nin-Girsu or Nin-Su(n)gir, the tutelary deity of
Lagash.
1
Comp. Heuzey in Comptes Rendus de /' Academie des Inscriptions, 1894,
pp. 34-42.
2
The name of the temple appears either as E-Ninnu, "House of God
Ningirsu" (Ninnu, " 50," being the ideogram of the god), or as E-Imgig-
(-gu)bara, i. e. the temple called Imgig( K
-gu)bara (" Imgig is shining "), or
as E-Ninnu- Imgig^-gu^barbara (a composition of these two names). The
divine bird Imgig was the emblem of the
God Ningirsu and of his city Shirpur-la
(Z.A. xv, pp. 52 seq., xvi, p. 357), according to Hommel, originally a
raven ( shir-pur (-gu~) = aribu.)