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

DURING lOTir CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 273
principal circumstances and events which led to the destruction
and his subsequent restoration of the temple of
Sin at Haran, Nabonidos proceeds to inform us how the
temple of Shamash, " the judge of heaven and earth," had
decayed in Sippar within less than fifty years after its reparation
by Nebuchadrezzar. To the mind of the king there
was only one reason which could account sufficiently for this
alarming fact,— the displeasure of the god himself. His
predecessor apparently had not followed the exact outline
and dimensions of the oldest sanctuary, which, according to
Babylonian conception, 1 must be strictlv kept to insure the
favor of the god and the preservation of his dwelling place
on earth. Nabonidos, therefore, ordered his soldiers to tear
down the walls and to search for the original foundation
stone. Eighteen cubits deep the workmen descended into
the ground. After infinite labor and trouble the last Chaldean
ruler of Babylon succeeded in bringing to light the
foundation stone of Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon of Agade,
"which for 3200 years no previous king had seen," conveying
to us by this statement the startling news that this
great ancient monarch lived about 3750 b. c, a date fully
corroborated by my own excavations at Nuffar.
No sooner had the rumor of Rassam's extraordinary discovery
spread in the neighboring districts than new difficulties
were thrown in his way bv jealous property owners
and intriguing individuals. But with his old pertinacity
he held his own and stuck to the newly occupied field, the
real value of which he had been the first to disclose. For
eighteen months British excavations were carried on at
Abu Habba without interruption. Rassam could remain
at the ruins only the third part of all
this time, — the expiration
of the annual grant by the British Museum and his
desire to have the old firman renewed as soon as possible
1
Comp. Hilprecht, Assyriaca, part I, Boston and Halle, 1894, pp. 54..
seq.