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

452 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
upper part of the vault had collapsed without leaving extensive
traces of the baked material of which it
originally consisted.
On the other hand, large numbers of pre-Sargonic
bricks were found in the lower row of Naram-Sin's pavement.
It seems therefore reasonable to connect the two facts and to
explain the situation as follows. About the time of Naram-
Sin, perhaps even in consequence of his enlarging the heavy
mass of the ziggurrat, the ancient aqueduct below had caved
in. In order to secure a more solid foundation for the east
corner, it became necessary to ascertain the cause of the subsequent
depression of the surface. Naram-Sin therefore
descended about twelve feet, removed the rubbish, saved all
the good bricks for his pavement, and built the peculiarly
shaped massive structure eleven feet high directly over it,
in order to prevent the formation of crevices in his structure
by the uneven settling of the disturbed ground below it.
This much is sure, that the mere existence of this solid
foundation at the eastern corner of the ziggurrat at the time
of Naram-Sin necessarily leads us to the conclusion that also
a large building which it was intended to support, a stagetower,
must have existed at that ancient period in Nippur.
This conclusion is fully corroborated by the fact that below
Ur-Gur's gray-colored bricks in the
other similar bricks were found, which in
centre of the ziggurrat,
texture, color and
size are identical with those of Naram-Sin's store-room or
cellar, in the southeast enclosing wall. The southeast face
of this earlv ziggurrat was actually discovered by means
of a tunnel following a pre-Sargonic water-course which ran
into the strata below Ur-Gur's stage-tower.
It lay four feet
behind Ur-Gur's facing wall, and was carefully built of the
same crude bricks just mentioned, which form the kernel of
the ziggurrat}
Since the water-course thus traced continued its way under
1
Comp. the zinctype " Section of the Stage-Tower and the Adjoining
Southeast Court," in the chapter on the topography of Nippur, below.