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

442 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
time received more positive instructions as to the manner in
which he was to proceed to carry the work of the expedition
to a satisfactory issue. In accordance with the desires of
the committee he henceforth directed his attention principally
to the exploration of the eastern half of the court of
the temple, to the search for the northeast city gate, and
to the excavation of the probable site of the
temple library,
the so-called " Tablet Hill " (IV), so that his Arabs were
not scattered over too large a surface, and with the subsequent
assistance of the two architects could be controlled
without difficulty.
Owing to Haynes' praiseworthy energy and characteristic
devotion to his duties, he soon could report conspicuous tangible
results, and illustrate them by his own photographs and
by sketches drawn by his assistants. He evidently worked
But unfortunately
hard according to the best of his ability.
our positive knowledge as to the topography of the ruins
was advanced but little thereby. The statements were too
vague to enable us to draw . ny conclusions. On October
28 he wrote with regard to the northeast city gate :
" Up to
the present moment, we have found no certain clue beyond a
mere fragment of very archaic wall, to indicate the existence
at that point of a gate or other structure." The whole
important subject was never mentioned afterwards except
in the brief title of a photograph despatched three months
later, which, however, reached Philadelphia only after my
arrival at Nuffar. By the middle of December tablets
began to be found in such large quantities in the northeastern
part of the " Tablet Hill," that even Haynes was
forced to admit that this collection of tablets looked very
much as if" constituting a distinct library by itself." But
whether it was merely another of these collections of contract
tablets so frequently found in the west half of the
ruins and always styled by him " libraries," or whether it
was the library for which I was looking so eagerly, the