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

DURING 19TB CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 469
of Larsa itself is Shamash's tomb. For on a barrel cylinder
from the temple of Shamash and Ai at Larsa, Nabonidos unmistakably
calls the god's stage-tower " his lofty tomb."
From what has been said, it follows (i) that the Babylonians
themselves associated the idea of " tomb " closely
with their ziggurrats, and (2) that the inscriptions not only
know of tombs of certain deities (of light) in general, but in
one case at least directly call the ziggurrat of a god " his
sepulchre." As Marduk, the supreme god of Babylon,
likewise is a sun-god, namely, the god of the early sun of
the day (morning) and of the year (spring), 2 we have no
reason to doubt any longer that the conception of the classical
writers concerning Etemenanki, the stage-tower of Marduk,
as " the sepulchre of Bel," is correct, and goes back
to trustworthy original sources. 3
4. The excavations conducted along the southeast enclosing
wall of the ziggurrat established the important fact
that the stage-tower did not occupy the central part of the
temple court, and that the ascent to the high-towering terrace
and the entrance gate of the enclosing wall did not
opposite each other. Upon entering the sacred precincts
one was compelled to turn westward in order to reach
the former. It became, therefore, very probable that the
remains of a second important structure were hidden
below the rubbish accumulated at the northeast side of the
ziggurrat. In order to ascertain this, we proceeded with
our excavations from the east corner of the temple court
1
A passage generally misunderstood by the translators. The text was
published and first translated by Bezold in the " Proceedings of the Society of
Biblical Archeology," 1889. Comp. col. ii, 16 : zi-ku-ra-ti gi-gu-na-ashu
si-i-ri.
2
Comp. Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 87, seqq. A somewhat different view
of the same scholar is found in Schrader's K. B., vol. vi, p. 562.
8
Comp. Lehmann in Wochenschrift fur klassische Philologie, 1900, p.
962, note 1, and Beitrage zur alten Geschichte, vol. i, p. 276, note 1.
Also Zimmern, K. A. T. a , p. 371.
lie