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

294 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
ciation of scholarship and original investigation on the
part
of the educated classes of the city in which it is situated.
It will therefore always remain a credit to
Philadelphia that
within its confines a small but representative group of gentlemen
was ready to listen to Dr. Peters' propositions,
and enthusiastically responded to a call from Mr. E. W.
Clark, a prominent banker and the first
active supporter of
the new scheme, to start a movement in exploring ancient
sites under the auspices of the
University of Pennsylvania
which is almost without a parallel in the history of archaeological
research. The immediate fruit of this unique
demonstration of private citizens was the equipment and
maintenance of a great Babylonian expedition, which has
continued to the present day at a cost of more than
$100,000, and which was soon followed by the organization
or subvention of similar enterprises in Egypt, Asia Minor,
North and Central America, Italy and Greece. It has well
been stated that no city in the United States has shown an
interest in archaeology at all comparable with that displayed
by Philadelphia within the last fifteen years.
The history and results of this Babylonian expedition of
the University of Pennsylvania will be set forth in the following
pages. Its work, which centred in the methodical
exploration of one of the earliest Babylonian cities, the
ruins of Nuffar, the Biblical Calneh (Gen. 10 : 10), was no
continuous one. Certain intervals were required for the
general welfare and temporary rest of its members, for
replenishing the exhausted stores of the camp, and, above
all,
for preparing, studying, and, in a general way, digesting
the enormous mass of excavated material, in
order to secure
by preliminary reports the necessary means for an early
resumption of the labors in the field. For as to the wealth
of its scientific results, this Philadelphia expedition takes
equal rank with the best sent out from England and France,
while it eclipses them all with regard to the number and