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

DURING lorn CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 425
Ur-Gur's material.
He unearthed great numbers of terracotta
cones, sometimes colored red or black at their round
bases, and fragments of water spouts " in the debris that
had gathered at the bottom of the wall." The former
were either small and solid or large and hollow, and evidently
had been used for decorating 1 its parapet; the
latter had served for draining the upper surface of the
structure. As Haynes accidentally had laid his trench diagonally
through a bastion of the wall,' 2 as was determined
by the architects of the fourth expedition, his measurements
obtained at that time 3 proved by far too great,
and consequently may be disregarded at present, while his
theory connected with the occupation of" the spacious and
airy summit " of the wall by rooms for the pilgrims is
based upon the plan of modern khans or caravansaries rather
than upon a correct conception of an early Babylonian temple,
and therefore has no real merit. We close this sketch
of his work at the city wall by mentioning that he reports to
have discovered " a bubbling spring " — he probably means
an open well — on the northeastern side of the great open
court confined by this rampart, and " the brick platforms
and curbs where the water-pots rested " on either side of the
" spring." The bricks were those in use at the time of
Naram-Sin and his immediate successors.
Fourth Campaign, iSgS—igoo. The first three American
expeditions to Nuffar had been sent out by the
trustees of
the Babylonian Exploration Fund of Philadelphia in affiliation
with the University of Pennsylvania ;
the fourth stood
under the direct control of the University of Pennsylvania.
A large new museum building had been erected principally
1
Comp. p. 148, above.
2
Comp. the zinctype of a section of this wall below (Fourth Campaign,
Temple Mound, Section 6).
3
As reproduced in Hilprecht, "The Bab. Exp. of the U. of Pa.,"
series A, vol. i, part 2, pp. 20, seq.