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

DURING 19"i CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 571
and foreign diplomats, was able to accomplish this gigantic
task within the short period of twenty years, — a fact even
more remarkable when we consider that the inner consolidation
of the whole department kept pace with the external
growth and development. New sections were created, more
officers appointed, a well-equipped library was added, and
The Imperial Ottoman Museum at Constantinople
This building contains a representative collection of ancient sarcophagi, and the Babylonian,
Assyrian, Egyptian, and early Turkish antiquities.
competent specialists were invited to classify and catalogue
the various collections. 1 In order to protect the more exposed
monuments carved in the rocks of mountain passes,
1
Among them the two brothers of Hamdy Bey, the late Ghalib Bey and
Halil Bey, Director of the Imperial Ottoman Museum, for Oriental coins
and Moslem antiquities ; Prof. Andre Joubin, of Paris, for classical and Byzantine
antiquities ; Prof. V. Scheil, of Paris, for the Egyptian monuments ; Consul
H. Mordtmann J. for South-Arabian and Palmyrene antiquities ; and Prof.
Hilprecht, of the University of Pennsylvania, for the Assyrian and Babylonian
collections.