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

542 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
worked clay (pp. 493, seq.)> as well as. baked bricks (pp. 373,
sea., ^576, seq.j 389), for their own constructions in the easiest
and cheapest manner possible.
Apart from Bint el-Amir, which is considerably higher
than the rest of the ruins (pp. 160, seq.) 3
the mounds of
Nuffar on an average rise thirty to seventy feet above the
present plain and the ruins descend from one to twenty feet
below it. The twenty-one strata or historical periods represented
by these ruins may naturally be grouped together
under three different headings briefly designated in the following
sketch as the Sumerian period, the Semitic Babylonian
period and the post-Babylonian period.
a. In the earliest (Sumerian) stratum we recognize six
phases of historical development by means of the
different
kinds of bricks employed. The first is characterized by the
entire absence of baked bricks, and the exclusive use of
adobes. The other five are easily distinguished according
to the different forms and sizes of baked bricks subsequently
adopted. The earliest bricks are very small, flat on the lower
^XSH XZH lo'+XyXl^ Ii' :
X-Xi3 +
'
l2X 7 3 4'xifs
Pre-Sargonic Bricks in their Historical Development
and strong! v rounded on the upper side, which generally
also bears a thumb-mark. Thev look more like rubble or
quarry stones, in imitation of which thev were made (Gen.
11 :
3) than the artificial products of man (p. 251). Gradually
they grow larger in size and flatter at the same time.