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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 313
barrel cylinder of Sargon, king of Assyria, which came from
the same neighborhood, indicated that a large public building
must have occupied this site
previously, a supposition subsequently
strengthened by the discovery of two more fragments
which belonged to duplicates of the same cylinder.
Stray cuneiform tablets and seal cylinders; a considerable
number of terra-cotta figurines, mostly bearded gods with
weapons and other instruments in their hands, or naked goddesses
holding their breasts or suckling a babe ;
and a few clay
reliefs, among which an exquisitely modelled lioness excited
our admiration, were discovered in various other parts of the
ruins. They belonged to the Babylonian period, in which
naturally our interest centred.
But, as was to be expected,
most of the trenches yielded antiquities which illustrated the
life and customs of the early post-Christian inhabitants of
the country rather than those of the ancient Babylonians.
Especially in the ruins of the Parthian building, with its interesting
brick columns, which in the first week the Arabs
had disclosed to the east of our camp, we uncovered hundreds
of slipper-shaped coffins and funeral urns, numerous
vases and dishes, and small peculiar tripods, so-called stilts,
which were used in connection with the burning
of pottery
in exactly the same way as they are employed in china-manufactories
to-day.
Terra-cotta toys, such as horses, riders, elephants,
rams, monkeys, dogs, birds, eggs, marbles, and baby
rattles in the shape of chickens, dolls and drums, spear-heads
and daggers, metal instruments and polishing stones, Parthian
coins, weights and whorls, jewelry in gold, silver, copper,
bone, and stone, especially necklaces, bracelets, ear and finger
rings, fibulae and hair-pins, together with about thirty
bowls inscribed with Hebrew, Mandean and Arabic legends,
and frequently also covered with
horrible demons supposed
to molest the human habitations and to disturb the peace
of the dead, completed our collections.
Soon after we had reached Nuffar, Dr. Peters had made
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