Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-21
LIGHT THROWN UPON HISTORY
Thrilling Story of Prof. Hilprecht's Exca
vatiOns in Old Nippur.
CIVILIZATION OLDER THAN CLAIMED
wonderful Discoveries Made by
American Explorers I'm the Baby
Ioninn Mounds-Ancicnt
cities and Temples.

Tne remarkable arCnaeOlOBlcal ulscOV-
cries OF commission that the University
OF Pennsylvania sent to make excavations
on the site OF the old Nippur, the Oldest
city of the world, were detailed by the New
York Herald last August. This commission,
OF which Rev. John =. Peters, ID. D., was
the first director, and Prof. Herman V. Hill
precht the permanent assyriologist, discov-
cred the unexpected and scientifically sem
sationa fact that the ancient Babylonian
mound contained Lot only the old cities
known collectively as Nppur, but also a
still more ancient city in which-were found
cuneiform inscriptions dating back to the
year (estimated) $3.50 b. c.
This showed with conclusiveness that civ
ilization is centuries older than we believed,
for the beginning of the world has, until
these discoveries, been placed at 1904 d. c.,
and this date appears in all our modern edi-
tions of the bible.
But greater things have developed since.
Prof Hilprecht has returned fresh from
the scene with further information Of a
most interesting nature, which is published
by the Herald. He now declares that his
knowledge of the development OF cuneiform
writing justifies him in saying that the
earliest writing found could not have been
developed ia less than 5000 years.
men in the world who have so mastered all
tho developments of cuneiform inscriptions
that he can at glance determine the age
of the writing. 1t was he who three years
ago enunciated the principle of the develop
ment of the cuneiform writings from pic
lures and of their gradual change from the
semblance of the the pictured things to the
signs of the later forms. The truth of his
theory is admitted now by all students of
archaeology. 1t forms an important part in
the proof that he brings to support his an
nouncement.
The discoveries were made in the unver-
sity's excavations at Nippur. Eight years
ago, when il was decided to send out an eX-
pedition for Babylonian research, Prof. Hill
precht and Rev. DR.. John p. Peters, then
professor of archaeology at the university,
decided upon Nippur as the spot that offered
promise of the most ancient finds.
They were not mistaken. The English,
German and French scientists at work in
Babylon and Tello have little chance of find
ing anything nearly so ancient as the bits
up under the Temple of Bel.
THEORY OF THE EXPEDITION.
From the beginning of religion in the
east there has been firm belief, which
thousands of years have not been able to
shake, that nothing about a temple must
ever be destroyed. The vases on which wSre
written the temple archives were kept Nor
thousands of years, and were broken OILY
by accident The worshipers believed that
never could any temple prosper or bring
peace and happiness to its people that did
not stand on the outlines of the first temple
that had been built there. III the old temple
was in ruins they did not remove the fallen
walls, but built upon them.
The same practice Is still adhered to in
Constantinople and other modern cities,
which are continually rising on their old
walls. The spectacle of a house heng
torn down and taken away is seldom offered
in the cast.
In days when Noah built his ark the
kings and high priests Of Babylonia had the
same belief, and some OF them in making
alterations in the temple left such inscrip
tons on clay as this:
But previous kings have not kept the
boundary OF the temple; they have not
searched out its foundation stone, and gath
cred their architects to lay out the lines
on the true places of the former temple;
and the gods were not in favor, and did
not look kindly on the people"
And so they built their own temples with
a care and precision that they thought
would meet with the approval of their
deities.
All this may not seem at first to have
very much to do with the work Of the Penn
sylvania expedition, but it has If 1t had
not been for this belief of the worshipers
of Bel there would have been no such rich
veins of the strata of civilization as the
scientist unearthed there, uncovering their
finds with more pride and joy than they
would have had in discovering a gold mine.
From 1000 years before Christ the inscrip-
tions of the worlds history, scratched in
clay and baked to hardness against which
time and weather have had no effect, had
been placed here, as If treasure were
being slowly deposited by the human race
for the enlightenment of races that should
come afterward.
Wh M al
places in the world. promised the richest re-
turn for the enthusiasts money and labor,
that the two archaeologists Of the University
of Pennsylvania decided upon in their coun-
ell before the first party was sent out eight
years ago Fortune placed the enterprise in
the right place and Hilprecht and his sturdy
assistants saw the work done properly They
fell to and began to pick and pull the temple |
to pieces in one place and another to see
how 1t was built and who had built it. They |
would unearth strata of civilization" and
they found the idea truer than they had |
hoped.
And here enters the reasoning on which |
Hilprecht's claim that there were civilized
men 1000 years B. c. must stand or fall.
High outer and inner walls surrounded the |
temple and, in parts, are still standing. |
The hilltop, over the tower, Is ninety-seyen |
feet above the desert level and fifty feet !
above the surrounding debris. The Arabs |
call the hill Daughter of the Prince"
On the exterior the temple gives little in |
dication of Its real antiquity. The walls, as |
they were found at first, seemed to have |
been built by Kadashman-Durgu, who lived |
only 1,200 years before Christ.
1t took very little work, however, to show |
that the bricks bearing his name formed |
only a thick veneer, or extra wall, on the |
real body of the temple. They were put /
there by the pious king to prevent the wear |
ing effects of wind and rain and sand, as |
were also the canals that carried the water !
away, and the bitumen, a foot thick, that |
kept it from getting through and wearing |
away the lower end Of the wall and the foun- |
dations.
The temple proper" had been built, they |
found by King Ur-Gur. who flourished $500 |
b. c. over that part OF Kengi-"the land of |
canals and bulrushes"-later called Baby |
lonia, for younger but greater city than |
Nippur.
SARGON'S EXISTENCE PROVED.
The Pennsylvanians dug away until they |
had reached Ur-Gurs foundation, and he |
had made 1t well. 1t was of baked brick |
like the walls, and eight feet thick. Di-
rectly under 1t was Sargons platform-two |
courses OF immense baked bricks of size |
and shape like nothing ever before found |
in Babylonia or anywhere else in the world, |
a foot and a half square and four inches
thick. Each had a convex top, being shaped
like loaf Of bread half risen from the pan |
In addition to King Sargon's name in