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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 547
pure place like Eridu " (p. 467), and the temple an exclusive
place of worship for the living.
It preserved this character
for over 3000 years, until Babylonia's independence
was lost, and another people with another religion, which did
not know of the ancient gods of the country, established
itself for a few centuries on the ruined site of Bel's venerable
city.
Notwithstanding the almost continuous occupation of the
city during this long period of Babylonian history, nine
strata can be distinguished more or less accurately in the
temple court. Six of these do not offer any difficulty at
all, as they are separated from each other by brick pavements
(pp. 376, seqq.y 475, seq.). The other three overlap
the next lower ones to a certain degree in the excavated
southeast section of the sacred enclosure, but are recognized
more clearly in other parts of the ruins. The debris representing
these different strata, with their nearly 3500 years
of history (from about 3800 to 350
b. a), and including
the pavement of Naram-Sin, measures only 17 to 19 feet in
the temple court. As we saw above (p. 391), this comparatively
small accumulation of rubbish within such a long
period finds its natural explanation in the double fact that
a considerable part of the court in front of the stage-tower
and temple must always have been unoccupied (p. 376),
and that everv ruler who laid a new pavement necessarily
razed the crumbling buildings of his predecessors around
the ziggurrat, in order to secure an even surface (p. 388)
and a solid foundation for his own constructions.
The six periods easily determined by fragmentary pavements
of baked or unbaked brick in the temple court are
the following : 1. Sargon and Naram-Sin, about 3750
b. c.
(pp. 388, seqq.y 497, seqq.) ; 1. Lugalsurzu, about 3500 b. c.
(p. 475, seq.) ; 3. Ur-Gur and his dynasty, about 2700
B.C. (pp. 378, seqq., 3$ 3, seqq.) ; 4. Ur-Ninib of (N)isin,
about 2500 b.c. (pp. 378, 380, seq.) ; 5. Kadashman-