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

326 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
strict observation of the ordinary sanitary laws, the expedition
as a whole escaped or overcame the peculiar dangers
of the Babylonian climate during the following campaigns.
In spite of all the disappointments and hardships, which
were scarcely less
in the second year than they had been in
moment lost sight of.
the first, the great purpose of the expedition was not for a
Our past excavations had been scattered
over the entire surface of the mounds. Trial trenches
had been cut in many places, to ascertain the general character
and contents of the ruins, until work finally concentrated
at three conspicuous points, — the temple (I),
the so-called
tablet hill (IV), and the more recent building with its fine
court of columns near our old camp (VII) and the long
ridge to the southeast of it. By means of written documents,
the first
expedition had adduced conclusive evidence
that the ruins of Nuftar contained monuments of the time
of Naram-Sin (about 3750 b. c.) and even of a period considerably
antedating it. It had discovered numerous remains
of the third pre-Christian millennium, and clearly demonstrated
that thousands of tablets and fragments of the ancient
temple library still existed in the large triangular mound to
the south of the temple complex, thereby almost determining
the very site of this famous library. It furthermore had
traced the history of Nippur by a few inscriptions through
the second millennium down to the time of the Persian kings,
and lastly shown, in connection with Parthian coins and constructions,
Sassanian seals, Hebrew and Mandean bowls,
Kufic coins of the 'Abbaside caliphs, and other antiquities,
that parts of the ruined city were inhabited as late as the
ninth century of our own era. In other words, it had submitted
material enough to prove that at least five thousand
years of ancient history were represented by this enormous
site. It remained for the second and the following
expeditions to fill
this vast period with the necessary details,
and, if possible, even to extend its limits by concentrated
methodical excavations at the principal elevations.