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

332 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
hundred years.
A similar result was obtained by an examination
of the stage-tower. It was observed that the ziggurrat
of the cruciform shape above referred to, which consisted
only of two stages, had two or three distinct additions,
and that the unbaked material employed in them was identical
with that found in the rooms around it.
In his endeavor to reach the older remains before the
more recent strata had been investigated in the least adequately,
Peters broke through the outer casing of the ziggurrat
built of " immense blocks of adobe," in a cavity of
which he discovered a well-preserved goose egg, and perceived
that there was an older stage-tower of quite a different
form and much smaller dimensions enclosed within the
other.
By means of a diagonal trench cut through its centre,
he ascertained its height and characteristic features down to
the level of Ur-Gur, and came to the conclusion (which,
however, did not prove correct) that the ziggurrat of this
ancient monarch was the earliest erected at Nippur. " Wells
and similar shafts were sunk at other points of the temple,"
especially at the northern and western corners, where he
reached original constructions of Ashurbanapal (668-626
b. c.) and Ur-Gur (about 2700 b. c), and discovered scattered
bricks with the names of Esarhaddon (681-668 b. c. ),
Rammanshumusur (about 1100 B.C.), Kadashman-Turgu
(about 1250 b. c), Kurigalzu (about 1300 b. c), Bur-Sin
of Nisin (about 2500 b. c), in addition to those previouslyfound,
" showing that many kings of many ages had honored
the temple of Bel at Nippur." At a place near the
western corner of the ziggurrat ',
on the northwestern side, he
descended through a tunnel some six feet below the plain
level, striking a terra-cotta drain with a platform at its
mouth and a wall of plano-convex bricks similar to those
preceding the time of Ur-Nina at Tello, in which he unearthed
also a beautiful, highly polished jade axe-head and
an inscribed pre-Sargonic clay tablet.