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

54 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
along the western face of a large pilaster. A space of
twelve feet square and twenty feet deep was soon removed,
when he suddenly came upon a well-preserved platform of
inscribed bricks, each measuring nearly twentv inches square
— the largest which so far had been discovered. From the
same clearing he obtained four seal-cylinders, three engraved
gems, and several silver and copper coins, one of Alexander
the Great being among them; while in
a small recess near a
well-preserved wall of an unexplored passage on the eastern
side of the Qasr, he even found a large and beautiful inscribed
barrel cylinder in situ, the first thus excavated by
any European explorer.
What Mignan had done with regard to our knowledge
of the eastern border of ancient Babylonia was attempted
for the interior of the country by another Englishman.
G. BAILLIE FRASER
In connection with his travels in Kurdistan and Persia,
which in
no small degree helped to shape the future life and
career of a Lavard, Fraser made a hasty tour through the
unexplored regions of the interior of Babylonia. The
whole trip, on which he was accompanied by Dr. Ross,
physician of the English Residency at Baghdad, lasted but
one month, from December 24, 1834, to January 22, 1835.
Naturally the information gathered and the impression
gained had to be one-sided and inaccurate ; but nevertheless
his vivid account was of considerable value for the time
being, as the greater part of the country traversed had never
been visited by any European before.
Names of ruins now
so familiar to everv student of Assyrian are found for the
first time in Fraser's " Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia,
etc." !
1
London, 1840, two volumes. For Babylonia comp. vol. ii., pp.
1 — 1 65.