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

DURING lorn CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 541
the contents of the ruins of Nuffar as far as explored, it will
only be necessary to summarize the principal results obtained
by the four expeditions, to
place them in their mutual relations,
and to consider them in a coherent manner from a
topographical point of view. To avoid undesirable repetitions,
constant references will be made to what has been
submitted before. The chapter necessarily must be brief,
especially as
the new facts, which by their very nature were
excluded from the previous history, will be easily understood
in the light of my former expositions.
The ruins of ancient Nippur (comp. pp. 160, seq., 305,
seqq.) are divided bv the dry bed of the Shatt en-Nil (Chebar)
into an eastern and western section. Both are nearly
equal in size, each covering an area of about ninety acres of
land (p. 305). The western half represents the remains
of the city proper, the eastern half the large complex of the
temple of Bel, generally known by the name of Ekur (pp.
464, seq.). Twenty-one different strata can be distinguished
in the mass of debris which constitutes the present site
of Nuffar. It should be understood, however, that these
twenty-one lavers, marking as many different phases in the
history of Bel's renowned city, by no means occur in every
section of the ruins. In some places the remains of the second
millennium rest immediately on the top of pre-Sargonic
Nippur, in others the two are separated by ten to fifteen
feet of rubbish, in still others the earliest remains appear
almost on the surface. At first sight, therefore, it would seem
evident that certain parts of Nippur must have been in ruins
for centuries, while others were occupied by houses continually.
To a certain degree this view is doubtless correct. But
we must not forget that our knowledge on this question will
alwavs remain more or less defective.
For on the other hand
we know positively that earlier building remains were frequently
razed to the ground by later generations, often
enough for no other reason than to obtain building material,