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

DURING 19'rn CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 543
The thumb-mark 1
begins to disappear, and one, two or more
longitudinal streaks made with the index ringer or by drawing
a reed leaf over the clav 2 come into use, first with
a thumb-mark (comp.
the third brick in the
above illustration),
without the same.
later
None
of all the pre-Sargonic
bricks thus far excavated
at Nurrar bears an inscription.
3 Wells and
drains are the earliest
constructions tor which
these baked bricks were
required. According to
the results furnished
bv our excavations, the
bricks are
generally laid
in a peculiar manner in
those ancient wells. The
architects call it herringbone
fashion. The upper
and lower three rows of
bricks seen in
Section of a Pre-Sargonic Well. Bricks laid in
Herring-bone Fashion
the accompanying cut are especially indicative
of the principle followed by the first builders
in " the land of Shinar." It is interesting to observe
that the sign used in Babylonian writing for
J " brick " originally represents a section of such
a well in which the bricks are laid in herring-bone fashion.
The Sumerian stratum extending from the virgin soil to a
point about five to ten feet above the ancient plain level is
1
Sometimes two and even four such marks occur.
2
The fibre and form of the Feaf are clearly recognized on a number of
bricks now in the archaeological museum of the U. of Pa.
3
The case is somewhat different at Tello ; comp. p. 251.