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

298 EXPLOliATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
that while he fully agreed with Dr. Peters as to the importance
of either of the proposed mounds 1 for archaeological
research, especially of Nuffar, so frequently and prominently
mentioned in the earliest cuneiform inscriptions, he nevertheless
felt it his duty to affirm that none of these extensive
mounds could be excavated in the least adequately within
the period stated, and that, moreover, according to his own
calculations, even a small expedition of only four members
and a corresponding number of servants and workmen
would necessarily cost more in the first year than the whole
sum required for three years. 2 He furthermore called
attention to the fact that the national honor and the
scientific character of this first great American enterprise
in Babylonia would seem to require the addition of an
American Assyriologist and architect, and, if
possible, even
of a surveyor and a naturalist, to the proposed staff of the
1
Notwithstanding all that has been said against Anbar (Persian, " magazine,
granary") as a Babylonian site, I still hold with Dr. Ward, on the
ground of my own personal examination of the immense ruins and of the
topography of that whole neighborhood, that long before the foundation of
Peroz Shapur a Babylonian city of considerable importance must have existed
there. Traces of it would doubtless be revealed in the lower strata of
its principal mounds. The mere facts that here the Euphrates entered Babylonia
proper, that here the first great canal — on the protection of which the
fertility and prosperity of an important section of the country depended —
branches off, and that here a military station is required to complete the
northern fortification line of the empire, — indicated by Tell Mohammed between
the Tigris and the Diyala (covering the remains of a palace of Hammurabi,
comp. p. 158, above), and 'Aqarquf between the Tigris and the
Euphrates (the ancient Dur-Kurigalzu, comp. pp. 38, seq., above), — forces
us to look for the ruins of a Babylonian city on the site of Anbar, which represents
the most important point on the whole northern boundary.
2
At Dr. Pepper's request, I handed my own views to him in writing as
to the composition, task, expenses, etc., of a Babylonian expedition on the
morning following this meeting. This paper was returned to the writer
shortly before Dr. Pepper's untimely death. The probable expenses of such
an expedition with a staff of five or six persons was estimated for the first year
at $19,200.