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

374 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
of Kadashman-Turgu's and Ashurbanapal's material by
Seleucido-Parthian princes, who selected
the
this peculiar place
in order to obtain the coolest water possible and to secure
its supply for the highest part of their castle, even in case
the lower palace should have been taken by an enemy.
A word remains to be said about the interior and the
upper stages of the ziggurrat. The large body of the hightowering
building consisted of crude bricks nine by six by
three inches in size. They represent the standard dimension
of Ur-Gur's material, but they were already in use
before his time. For bricks of the same size and form, but
different in color (the latter being yellowish, the former
gray), were discovered in the lower courses of the interior
of the ziggurrat. 1
Apart from the unusually large adobes
employed by the
Parthian builders and completely covering and embedding
the ancient stage-tower, there is only one other kind of
crude bricks traceable in its upper part, which may belong
to one of the Cassite rulers or to Ashurbanapal.
This fact
will scarcely surprise us, since little is left of the higher
stages of the ziggurrat. We can state with certainty only
that Haynes found considerable remains of a sloping second
terrace, largely ruined in the centre of its southwest and
northeast facades, where apparently water conduits, similar
to those of the first story, previously existed, and that he
believes himself to have discovered faint traces of a third
storv. The amount of rubbish accumulated on the top of
the second stage is comparatively small. But this circumstance
does not constitute an argument against the assumption
of more than three stages. It only testifies to the rapid
disintegration of crude bricks after they had been exposed
to the combined action of heavy rains and extraordinary heat,
and to the remarkable changes which the ziggurrat under-
1
Comp. what is said below, p. 390, in connection with the two treasury
vaults opening into the pavements of Ur-Gur and Naram-Sin.