The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-01
RARE ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS
RECENTLY DISCOVERED RECORDS
AND THEIR BEARING ON BIBLI-
CAL HISTORY.


row Night-Lecture for the Gen.
cral PubIic-TabIets Containing
Letter Written in Time of AbIa-
ham, and a Contract Made in
Time of Moses Among the CuriOs-
tiles That VIII BE shOwn-Calneh,
Brought Forth.
DR.. Josiah H. Penniman, dean of the
academic department of the University
of Pennsylvania. will deliver a lecture
at the Lawton Memorial at $3.50 o'clock
tomorrow night. There will be no ad-
mission fee charged, and the general
public is invited to be present.
The subject of the lecture will be the
discoveries of records of ancient times,
unearthed at Nippur or Calneh, Baby
lonia and the relation of these records
to history as set forth in the Old Tes-
lament. Among the interesting speci-
mems of the finds made by this at Cal
neh that will be shown by DIR, Penni-
man is a private letter written in the
time of Abraham, about 1000 years B.
c., and a contract made while Moses
was yet alive, about 1900 B. c. Both
these interesting records are in the
form of small fiat bricks, and are writ
ten in a character similar to that found
on the cuneiform bricks.
Discussing the site from which these
records were secured, and the work of
the expedition that secured them, DR..
Penniman said:
1.-THE University of Pennsylvania in
1883 sent out an expedition to eXcavate
Nippur, an ancient city of BabylonIa.
1t is situated midway between the Ii
girls and the Euphrates, about fifty
miles to the southeast of Babylon. All
that remains of the city is an extern
sive group of mounds, which rise on
an average of about sixty feet above
the plain. The mounds represent the
accumulation of millenniums, the low
est stratum of which is found thirty
feet below the present level of the
plain, owing to the gradual filling in
during the past ages.
For eleven years, includiag inter
ruptions, the 'deathlike stiffness
which brooded over this ancient city,
which is the probable site of Calneh
Genesis Xxx: 10) with its treasures of
long forgotten millenniums has been
d1spelled, and the place has been the
scene of much activity on the part of
the American expedition. Though much
has been accomplished in the laying
bare of ancient buildings and the
gathering of the exceedingly rich har-
vest Of antiquities, yet at the present
rate of operations, although on an
average of seven hundred Arabs have
been employed, it will require fully
one hundred years to excavate thor
oughly this ancient city.
Several wears go a trial trench was
cut through the wall of the city, but
recently a considerable portion of the
wall was eXcavated. 1t was ascer-
tanned that the first wall was built In
the early Semitic period (prior to 1000
B. CO.. Upon this structure Naram-
Sin $3.50 B. Co. raised up his wall to
a considerable hight, using the char
acteristically large bricks of the peri
cd. Upon the remains of this splendid
structure lie the bricks of Ur-Gur
(2SO0 B. CO.. The uppermost stratum
contained the remains of a Jewish set
Element belonging to the late period.
Rooms or shops for traders were built
on the inside of the wall.
From business records discov-
cred, Prof. Hilprecht infers that they
were occupied during the third mill
lennium, B. c.
lone of the highest points of Nip
pur is the conical mound, called 'Bint
el-Amir' ('daughter of the princeO by
the Arabs who live in the neighbor
hood. 1t rises about 95 feet above the
plain and covers the ruins of the Zig
gurrut Imkharsag, the stage tower of
the temple Ekur About the tower
on all sides are the buried rooms and
collapsed walls of the temple proper.
Considerable time in the past has been
devoted to the excavation of this
structure. The uppermost stratum of
the mound, not unlike all of the others
examined, was found to be a ceme-
terry, where in the period from about
200 A. D. the residents of Nippur buried
their dead over the place where their
ancestors worshiped their gods.
Beneath this structure was found
the temple that had been built by AS
hurbanapal (66S-626 B. CO. Whether
out of his great regard for the Tenn
pie of Bel or for some political rea-
son, this Assyrian monarch restored
and greatly enlarged the temple which
had existed prior to his time.
1.-THE next great builder going back
ward in the order of time was Kad-
ashman-Turgu Q250 B. c.. The work
of Kurgalzu, Bur-Sin II, Ishma Da-
gan, Bur-Sin I, Ur-Ninib and Dungi of
the third pre-Christian millennium
was also cleared away after being ex-
amined in all details, when the Zig
gurrut, as it was seen in the time of
Ur-Gur, was laid bare.
about eight feet below the level
of Ur-Gur's pavement was found an
other, consisting of two layers of burn
ed bricks They were 20 inches square
by thick, most of which were stamp
ed with the legend 'Naram-Sin, builder
of the Temple of BEL while a few
were stamped with his fathers name,
'Sharganishar-A Ali (Sargon), King of
Accad, builder of the Temple of Bel.
Until recently these rulers, who
lived above $500 B. c., were regarded
as legendary characters. largely on ac-
count of their great antiquity. but the
excavations revealed the fact that the
founding of the temple was several
thousand years prior even to their
time.
Among the most interesting discov-
cries in these ruins is the library. AL
ready there have been taken from its
rooms about $4,000 tablets, mostly un-
baked. Prof. Hilprecht estimates the
probable number of tablets yet buried
i'm the library at from 100000 to 10000.
They are almost entirely Of a didactic
character and belong to the third mil
lenium Before Christ
among the many interesting articles
found in this search are gold and sill
yer iewelry, several hundred inscribed
Hebrew and Mandate bowls, enameled
inns IF gods