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

378 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
to much older material used again. An interesting discovery
made at the same level, on the back side of the ziggurrat
near its west corner, confirms my theorv expressed above
that the whole court around it was studded with smaller
buildings at the time of the Cassite dominion. For while
clearing the northwest face of the stage-tower Haynes came
upon a room resting on the brick pavement now under consideration,
and containing six whole cuneiform tablets, a
little over a hundred small fragments of others, and an unpolished
marble weight in the shape of a duck, which was
nearly a foot long.
At an average depth of a foot and a half below the second
pavement was a third, much better preserved. It was laid
by Ur-Ninib, one of the kings of the dynasty of (N)isrn,
which occupied the throne of Babylonia about the middle
of the third pre-Christian millenium. Out of a section of
143 bricks, taken up by Haynes, 135 bore the inscription:
"Ur-Ninib, the glorious shepherd of Nippur, the shepherd
of Ur, he who delivers the commands of Eridu, the gracious
lord of Erech, king of (N)isin, king of Shumer and Akkad,
the beloved consort of Ishtar." One was stamped with
Ur-Gur's well-known legend, and six were uninscribed.
From the reports before us we receive no information as
to any walls or noteworthy antiquities having been discovered
in
the layer of rubbish once covering the pavement.
The most important of all the strata above the level of
Naram-Sin is that which lies between the pavement of Ur-
Ninib and the next one below. As the former was not
always exactly parallel to the latter, it is in some places
almost three feet deep, though its average thickness is
scarcely more than two. It rests upon a " platform " of
clay and unbaked bricks, which, in size, color, and texture
are identical with the mass of crude bricks forming the
body of the ziggurrats of Nuffar and Warka, and therefore
may be safely ascribed to Ur-Gur, king of Ur (about