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

DURING lOTii CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 565
The walls of the house varied in thickness from three
From fragments of pavements
feet to eight feet and a half.
found in some of the rooms we may infer that the floors of
the principal apartments at least were of baked brick. In
the construction of steps, pillars, thresholds, fireplaces, beds
and the like the same material was used, while the open
courtyards were paved with unbaked bricks. The floor of
the bathroom was covered with bitumen. As the many
charred pieces of wood indicated sufficiently,
the roof of the
building consisted of palm logs, matting and earth, " We
may safely assert that there was no second story to the
building." The doors were made of mulberry or tamarisk
wood and swung on door-sockets of stone, baked brick, or
cement. In the case of quite a number of the rooms, rugs
or curtains seem to have taken the place of doors. Owing to
the destruction of the house by fire and its farther devastation
by rain and later inhabitants who used the ruins of the
once imposing structure as a quarry and graveyard, we know
little or nothing " as to the methods of decoration adopted
by the builders for the interior of the palace." It was
probably plastered and painted according to the manner
of the more ambitious structure on the other side of the
Chebar.
A word remains to be said about the courts and columns.
1
The larger courtyard (4) measured nearly 64 by 70 feet, the
smaller (21) was about 28 feet square.
the former was probably open to the
fresh air
"The central part of
sky, to give light and
to the rooms, while columns, placed at nearly even
distances from one another, served to support a roof over
the adjoining gallery or colonnade which surrounded it."
There were four round columns on each side
of the principal
courtyard and a square one at each angle. They were
built of baked bricks especially made for the purpose, and
must have been at least fifty courses, or 12^ feet, high.
1
Comp. the cut, p. 567.