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

402 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
not only less conspicuous than those just described, but
have been reported in such a manner as to defy all efforts
to comprehend them from any point of view. At different
levels and apparently belonging to different epochs, he found
perpendicular drains almost everywhere in the court. They
were constructed of single terra-cotta rings, sometimes with
perforations in their sides, placed above
each other, and occasionally
provided with a bell-shaped top-piece, in one case 1
even bounded by a terra-cotta floor, with a rim around it
and made in four sections. The level at which the opening
of the lowest perpendicular drain seems to occur lies ten
and a quarter to eleven feet below Naram-Sin's pavement,
according to my own measurements of the remains of
Haynes' excavated antiquities. It is about identical with
that which I ascertained from later researches at the ruins
as the original plain level. Here and there Haynes struck
a small piece of pavement, which he explained as a fireplace,
because of the ashes seen near and upon it. At
some places he unearthed fragments of gently sloping water
conduits, at others wells built of plano-convex bricks laid in
herring-bone fashion, 2 at still others low walls, remains of
rooms, too nearly ruined, according to his statements, to
allow of a restoration of their ground plan.
But above all,
he discovered many large terra-cotta jars in various forms
and sizes, and without any order, standing in the rubbish
around and below them. Wherever he dug he came upon
" a multitude of potsherds scattered profusely through the
vast accumulation of debris, earth, decomposed refuse matter
and ashes." The lowest vase of this large type found
whole by him stood about twenty feet below Naram-Sin's
1
This special drain, shown in the illustration on p. 401, descended six and
a half feet and had an average diameter of 2 3/£
feet.
2
Comp. the illustration below ("Section of a Pre-Sargonic Well, Bricks
laid in Herring-bone Fashion " ) in the chapter " On the Topography of
Ancient Nippur."