The evening times., 1900-06-05
THE MYSTERIOUS NIPPUR.
Wonders of LOng-GOne Centuries
Produced by Excavations
Il Ainslee's Nagazine.)


Calneh. or ancient NippGr, where ex-
eavations by the University OF PennsyI-
vania are now being made. lies al the
bottom Of = great sand dune in Mesnpo-
tamia---that is. ancient Babylonia and to-
day-May, ls00-a party Of archaeo,Ogists
is delving through the debris Of 1000
years for the records that were made
contemPoraneOus to Old-time reckoning
Of the Gefqge- From the marshy plain
surrounding Calneh the sand dune looks
little like the key TO the beginnings OF
history Standing amid q clump OF Arab
mud huts, where the horses are still Of
native strain. and the men still use
matchlocks inlaid with arabesques, one
might figure mighty whirlwind OF the
desert staggering ecross the wastes pick
ing up sand until it could carry no more
and coll2psing, 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 an
cient cities. and platforms OF baked clay
and stone stairways up which today hun
dreds OF Arab porters are carrying baskets
Of sand. From the summit Of the pile one
can look afar of to the sun just cleaning
above the horizon Of the twentieth CEN
tury. and then walk slowly down toward
the beginnings Of civilization. Walk "a
slowly as you may. and at the first dozen
steps OF descent you have passed the
level OF the Christian era The baked clay
to the right Of you was placed there by
Ashurbanapai, King more than 500 years
before Christ. 4 few steps farther and
at your feet are the markings OF Kadash-
man-Turgu. 400 B. c.
Down again. farther. and you are walk
ing on a platform laid in the time of
Ur-Gur, centuries before Abraham the
founder Of the Jewish nation. was born
Down, stiH farther down, only a few feet
and you are standing on the temple plat
form laid by Sargon / and Narim Sin $500
b. G; Sargon, whose existence even BibIi-
cal scholars have said was mythical. Sar-
gon. whose name. nevertheless. is stamped
IL every brieq. Finally. through a hole
broken in this platform, you may look
down past thirty feet of debris to the site
Of ancient Nippur or Calneh. and see the
fragments of arches, sacrifcial urns. and
affairs built at least 400 b. c. The Sep
tuagint, written 250 B. c. places the crea-
tion of the world at about $500: and
with this in mind. it is difficult in the
nineteenth century to gaze upon these evil
dences OF mans handiwork and realize that
the workmen lived more than 1000 years
ago.
And yet this is by no means the strang-
est feature, for the records OF these work
men show that they lived not within a
comparatively few generations of the be-
ginning of the world, but that they were
part Of civilization as highly developed
as that Of the Greel,s; that men carried
on the business Of life in a manner and
with ambitions and desires not very differ
ent from those of our time, and that. most
remarkable Of all. this state OF Affairs
had then been going on for many thousands
of years. Evidence OF all this is found
stamped on the tablets and vases which
~
CT Calneh- It is a wonderful story. which
probably has a more important bearing on
the beginning and end of human life than
anything else recently discovered.