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

238 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
civilization and of the geographical horizon of the early
inhabitants of Lagash that at first it seemed almost impossible
to regard it as faithful and historical. Gudea fought
victorious battles against Elam and sent his agents as far
as the Mediterranean. He cut his cedars in Northern Syria
and Idumea and obtained his dolerite in the quarries of
Eastern Arabia (Magan). His caravans brought copper
from the mines of the Nejd (Kimash), and his ships carried
gold and precious wood from the mountains of Medina
and the rocky shores of the Sinaitic peninsula (Melukh). 1
What an outlook into the lively intercourse and the exchange
of products between the nations of Western Asia
at the threshold of the fourth and third pre-Christian
millenniums, but also what an indication of the powerful
influence which went forth from this little known race of
Southern Babylonia, irresistibly advancing in all directions
and affecting Palestine long before Abram left his ancestral
home on the west bank of the Euphrates. And yet De
Sarzec's excavations at Tello and the Philadelphia expedition
to Nuffar were soon to provide ample new material by means
of which we were enabled to follow that remarkable civilization
a thousand years and even further back.
3. De Sarzec's careful description of the many ancient remains
unearthed by him, and Heuzey's admirable exposition
of the age and importance of the new material, prepared
the way for an early resumption of the excavations at
Tello.
But in view of certain fundamental changes recently
1
Comp. Hommel's article " Explorations in Arabia," in this volume. Iron,
however, was not among the metals brought by Gudea from Melukh, as was
asserted by Hommel and (following him) by myself (in Verhandlungen der
Berliner anthropologischen Gesellschaft, session of 16 Febr., 1901, p. 164)-
So far no iron has been discovered in the earliest strata of either NufFar or
Tello. Indeed, I doubt whether it appears in Assyria and Babylonia much
before 1000 b. c. The earliest large finds of iron implements known to us
from the exploration of Assyrian and Babylonian ruins date from the eighth
century b. c. and were made in Sargon's palace at Khorsabad (comp. p. 83,