Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1905-08-12

/ when Babylon was in its infancy. It
was. like Or of the Chaldeans, a city
of the tabled olden times, when Khan
murabi began his reign in Babylon
2 400 years before the birth of Christ
For years-back, in fact, to 1877.
when the work of exploration and dis
covery began to give startling results
at Babylon and Nineveh-the field of
more ancient human occupation in
Southern Babylonia, down near where
the remains of great canals and colos-
sal mounds mark the sites of vast Gre
ations and activities, of which there
is no historic chronicle, has been the
desire of all explorers. Since the brief
work at Ur a score of years ago that
yielded priceless treasures, the
| mounds at Mukayer have possessed an
intense allurement for oriental schol-
arS.
But the very eagerness with which
| they sought permission to uncover
| buried walls of Ur and unearth its
| hidden secrets has defeated the aims
| of the explorers
| I For fifteen years Prof. Banks has
| been one of those who desired to
| probe the mysteries of the mounds of
/ Ur. In 1891 he secured the position
| of United States consular agent at
Bagdad, in the hope that it would
bring to him the coveted opportunity.
| To his disgust he found that members
| of the consular service were forbidden
to do work of exploration within the
| Turkish dominions. He therefore re-
turned to this country.
Three years ago Prof. Banks went
to Constantinople to seek authority
IT. -
the mounds at the Moor CITY," hav-
ing organized many influences in sup
port of his petition.
1t was only after two and a half
years of waiting and striving that
Prof. Banks was able to get a permit
through the intricate channels of Of
ficialdom in Turkey and Mesopotamia,
to work on the unidentified mounds
south of Nippur.
Here he has now made the discov-
cry of perhaps surprising Importance
in uncovering the temple of a city
that was closely linked to ancient Nip
| pur, and which lies further south
within the narrow circle of the earliest
known civilization of the world.
In fact, Prof. Banks discovery is
of four temples, one superimposed
| above the ruins of the other, indicat-
ing the immense antiquity of the city
| as well as the vicisitudes it underwent
| in the contests of ancient sovereign
ties in this valley of primitive COM
| munities.
From the brief descriptions received
| it is known that the temple unearthed
by Prof. Banks is in all essential re-
speets similar to those brought to
light elsewhere in BabyIonia-in fact.
similar to the Flower of Babel" the
ruins of which were identified as the
mound Birss Mimrud at Borsippa, and
the ruined building at Babylon now
fully exposed that Nebuchadnezzar
named the 'sTower of Babylon" the
great Temple of Belus.
The temple consists of several solid
brick platforms, reared one above the
other, each successive story being
smaller than the one beneath it. A
staircase or inclined plane leads from
the shelf of one story to the next, with
shrines on the shelves or in inches
in the walls, the shrine of the chief
deity being in small building at the
top To give beauty to the structure
the exterior was coated with ename1ed
brick and roofs were supported by
tree trunks sheathed with FURNISHED
metal bulireSSeS anu pdiiSauoS sup
porting the platforms gave further
| variety to the architecture.
The work has but just begun at
Adab In the debris of the older tenn
pies have been found marble statues,
onyx and sandstone lamps and many
bronze articles, but when. the earth
has been removed from some palace
of the city, of which the eloquent
mounds indicate there are many, the
disclosures it will yield of the life
of this remotely ancient people can
be hopefully conjectured from the
wonderful discoveries and achieve
ments of recent explorations in this
land of the dawn of humanity.-New
York World.