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

250 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
a few are the documents from the reign of Gudea (about 2700
b. c); by far the largest mass of the tablets recovered belongs
to the powerful members of the later
dynasty of Ur,
1
about 2550 b. c.
Numerous other inscribed antiquities of a more monumental
character, such as statuettes with intact
heads, truncated
cones, stone cylinders, and, above all, the large pebbles
of Eannatum, grandson of Ur-Nina, with their welcome
accounts of the principal historical events occurring during
his government, were taken from the clay shelves of the
same .subterranean galleries. Unique art treasures were
found at different parts of the ruins as previously indicated,
but they were especially numerous in the neighborhood of
the storehouses and temple archives. Among those from
Tello which exhibit the most primitive style of art so far
known, the fragments of a circular bas-relief representing the
solemn meeting of two great chiefs followed by their retinues
of warriors hold a very prominent place. It is contemporaneous
with the earliest building discovered in mound B,
while three excellent specimens of Old Babylonian metallurgy,
two bulls' heads in copper 2 and a peculiarly formed
vase in
the same metal, belong to the more advanced period
of Ur-Nina and his successors.
For many years to come the excavations of De Sarzec in
and around mound B have furnished rich material for the
student of ancient languages, history, and religion. Though
1
Comp. especially Thureau-Dangin in Comptes Rendus, 1896, pp. 3 5
5—
361, and in Revue d' Assyriologie, vol. iii, pp. 1 18-146 ; vol. iv, pp. 13—
27 (also Oppert, ibidem, pp. 28-33), 69-84 (accompanied by 32 plates
of representative texts). The latest inscribed cuneiform document so far obtained
from Tello is an inscribed cone of Rim-Sin of Larsam, according to a
statement of Heuzey in Comptes Rendus, 1894, p. 42.
2
Two fine heads of Markhur goats in the same metal and of the same period
were obtained by the present writer from the pre-Sargonic mounds of Fara.
Comp. Helm and Hilprecht in Verhandlungen der Berliner anthropologischen
Gesellschaft, February 16, 1901, pp. 162, seqq.