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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 399
percolating the soil behind and above it, and in this way to
prevent the softening of the clay cement between the bricks
of the arch, and the caving-in of the whole vault which
would result from it. This explanation being accepted, it
necessarily follows that the floor of the court surrounding
the earliest sanctuary was not paved with burned bricks, an
inference entirely confirmed by the excavations.
There is much to be said in favor of the theory that this
skilfully planned tunnel was arched over originally along its
entire length. Like its vault, the lower part of the aqueduct
presented several most surprising features. " Just beneath
the level of the pavement and in the middle of the
water channel were two parallel terra-cotta tiles, 8 inches in
diameter, with a 6-inch flanged mouth." Haynes, regarding
this tunnel as a drain rather than the protecting structure
for a drain, was at a loss to explain their presence and
significance. They were laid in clay mortar and consisted
of single joints or sections, each i feet long, cemented
together by the same material. We may raise the question :
Why are there two small pipes instead of one large one ?
Evidently because they carried the water from two different
directions to a point inside the sacred enclosure, where
they met and passed through the arched tunnel together.
They surely testify to a most highly developed system of
drainage in the very earliest period of Babylonian history.
I have, therefore, no doubt that the so-called "watercocks
" previously mentioned served some purpose in connection
with this complicated system of canalization, and
that in all probability they are to be regarded as specially
prepared joints intended to unite terra-cotta pipes meeting
each other at a right angle.
The mouth of the tunnel
was provided with a T-shaped
construction of plano-convex bricks, which Haynes is inclined
to consider as " the means employed for centring
the arch," or as " a device to exclude domestic animals,