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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 455
large knife, in order to secure the necessary information
with regard to the original sizes, forms and structures of
these broken terra-cotta vessels. Without exception they
belonged to large, thick urns of various shapes, or small
pointed vases, peculiarly formed cups, dishes and similar
household vessels. In descending graduallv from the
pavement of Naram-Sin, I suddenly came, three feet
below it, upon a group of potsherds lying in such a manner
as to suggest at once to the observer the original form
of a large vase, to which they belonged.
It was a large oblong-ovate jar over 1 feet long and
nearly i Y / 2 feet at its largest diameter. The heavy weight
of the debris of six thousand years lying on the top of
it had crushed the vessel, which was placed almost horizontally
in the ground, into hundreds of small pieces.
It contained gray ashes mixed with small bits of charred
wood and earth, and two long but thin streaks of yellowish
ashes. Without difficulty I could determine that the
gray ashes represented the remains of bones and wood
consumed by fire, and the yellowish ashes those of two
large bones which had decayed gradually, but apparently
had belonged to the same human body. There were
four or five fragmentary small cups and dishes in the
urn. They were in a much better condition than the
large jar which enclosed them. Two of them, which accidentally
had stood almost upright and consequently offered
much less resistance to the pressure from above than
those which lay on their sides, were nearly whole, and
had retained even the forms of decayed dates and fishbones
in the fine earth that filled them. Without knowing
it, Haynes had cut through the remains of this jar
lengthwise, leaving only half of it for my examination.
There could be no doubt, we had here a true pre-Sargonic
burial. The human body contained in it had been subjected
to cremation without, however, being destroyed com-