The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1900-06-21
MYSTERIOUS NIPPUR.
Excavations Where a Depth of Ten Feet
Marks Centuries.

Calneh, or Ancient Nippur, where ex-
Z eayations by the University of Penn
sylvania are now being made, lies at
the bottom Of q great sand dune in
Mesopotamia-that is, ancient Baby
lonia, and today-19O0-a party of
archaelogists is delving through the
debris Of 1000 years for the records
that were made contemporaneous to
old-time reckoning of the deluge. From
the marshy plain surrounding Calneh
the sand dune looks like the key to
the beginnings Of history. Standing
amid clump Of Arab mud huts where
the horses are still Of native strain,
and the men still use matchlocks in
laid with ArabeSques, one might figure
. mighty whirlwind Of the desert until
It could carry no more and collapsing,
\ finally, on the site Of the ancient city.
But in that huge mound are tunnels
leading In and down, and deep riffs
and pits and projecting walls Of ancient
cities. and platforms Of baked clay, and
stone stairways up which to-day hun
dreds Of Arab porters are carrying bas-
kets Of sand. From the summit Of the
pile ore can look afar off to the sun
just cleaning above the horizon Of the
twentieth century, and then walk slow
II down toward the beginnings Of civil
ization. Walk as slowly as you may.
and at the first dozen steps Of descent
you have passed the level Of the Chris
tian era. The baked clay to the right
Of you was placed there by Ashurba-
napal king more than 600 years be-
fore Christ. A few steps further and
at your feet are the markings Of
Kadashman-Turgu 400 B. c. Down
again, further, and you are walking
Sa a platform laid in the time of ur-
Cur centuries before Abraham, the
founder Of the Jewish nation, was
born. Down, still further down, only
few feet and you are standing on the
temple platform laid by Sargon 1. and
Narim Sin, $500 B. C-Sargon whose
existence even Biblical scholars have
said was mythical-Sargon, whose
name, nevertheless, is stamped In
every brick. Finally, through hole
broken In this platform, you may look
down past thirty feet of debris to the
site Of ancient Nppur or Calneh and
see the fragments Of arches, sacrihciai
urns and affairs built at least 4,5OO b.
C. The Septuagint, written 250 B. c.,
places the creation Of the world ut
about $500; and with this in mind, it
is difficult in the nineteenth century to
gaze upon these evidences Of mans
handiwork and realize that the work
men lived more than 1000 years ago.
And vet this is by no means the strang-
est feature, for the records Of these
workmen show that they lived not
within comparatively few generations
of the beginning Of the world, but that
they were part of a civilization as high
" developed as that Of the Greeks;
that men carried on the business OF
life in q manner and with ambitions
and desires not very different from
those Of our time, and that, most re-
markable Of all, this state of a1airs
had then been going on for many thou
sands of years. Evidence OF all THIS
is found stamped on the tablets and
vases which are being unearthed TO-
day from the ruins Of Calneh. 1t Is
wonderful story, which probably has
q more important bearing on the De-
ginning and end Of human life than
ANYTHING else recently discovereo.-
Ainslee's Magazine.