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

DURING 19TB CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 375
went at the hands of the occupants of the latest castle, who
practically turned the Babylonian ruin into a huge cruciform
terrace with an additional central elevation or watch-tower.
c. The excavation of the southeast court of the ziggurrat
forms the most interesting though the most pernicious part
of Haynes' work on the temple of Bel. He accomplished
it in his own manner during the last half year of his stay at
the ruins by dividing the whole space into four sections
many large perpendicular
and clearing three of them by as
shafts from the walls of the Parthian rooms down to the
virgin soil. The fourth had been excavated only to the
brick pavement of Ashurbanapal, when he departed from
NufFar on February 19, 1896. Whatever seemed important
enough at the different altitudes, he left standing,
supporting the uncovered remains of the past
by solid pillars
of earth, or by artificial arches cut out of the rubbish
below them. In consequence of this unique method of
operation, the southeast section of the temple court, as
seen
in the frontispiece, looks as picturesque and attractive as
possible, while in reality it presents a picture of utter confusion
and devastation to the archaeologist. In sketching
Haynes' work, therefore, I can only attempt to set forth
certain striking features of the different strata which I
have
been able to develop out of his incoherent and frequently
contradictory reports, and to give a brief description of some
of the more important antiquities discovered by him. For
the sake of greater clearness we take a pavement of Sargon
and Naram-Sin, which extends
through a considerable part
of the mound, as a dividing line, and examine the ruins
which lie above it first, and afterwards those which were
hidden below it.
1. Post-Sargonic Ruins. The rubbish which filled the
court between the platform just mentioned and the bottom
of the stratum of well-packed earth, prepared by the
Seleucido-Parthian princes as a foundation for their fortified