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

DURING lOTH CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 473
cisely where, on the basis of Rassam's excavations at
Borsippa and Sippara, and according to numerous indications
in the building inscriptions of Babylonian temples, 1 I
had expected to find it.
My conclusions with regard to the importance and nature
of this structure were fully confirmed by the discoveries
made in its immediate neighborhood. Apart from numerous
fragments of stone vases, as a rule inscribed with the
names of pre-Sargonic kings familiar to us from the results
of the former campaigns, we unearthed several interesting
antiquities in a far better state of preservation than
the average relic previously excavated in the court of the
temple. Their number increased as we began to approach
the large edifice described.
obtained I
Among the objects of art thus
mention the leg of a large black statue from the
level of Ur-Gur, the head of a small marble statue covered
with a turban, like those of the time of Gudea found at
Tello, and two small headless statues of the same material
but considerably older. Each of the latter bore a brief
votive inscription of four lines. They came from the same
stratum that produced the large mass of broken antiquities
gathered by the second and third expeditions. Immediately
below it was the section of a pavement which consisted
of stones and pieces of baked brick mixed and laid
bitumen. When examined more closely it was found to
contain three fragments of a large inscribed slab in limestone
once presented to the temple of Bel by a " king of
Shumer and Akkad." Not far from this pavement there
was a large heavy vase in dolerite. It stood upright, was
over 2 feet high, had a diameter of nearly i V2 feet, and
bore the following inscription :
" To Bel, the king of the
i For the present comp. Nabonidos' barrel cylinder from Larsa (published
by Bezold in the "Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology,"
London, 1889), vol. iii, 13, seq. : pa-pa-khi shu-ba-at i-lu-tl-shu-un sirtim
sha i-te-e zi-qu-ra-tim ri-tu-u te-me-en-shu.
in