The Cook County herald., 1905-07-22

Or. Banks in Arab Costume.
thr terrific sand storms which sweep
over the plain. The country about
is an absolutely barren desert, a sort
OF no mans land, forming a boundary
line between several savage Arab
tribes. In recent years it has been
the haunt of the most ferocious rob-
bers of the desert
Blsmya has been visited by few ex-
plorers. DR.. Ward and DR.. Peters
each spent few months there. and
both were of the opinion that it mark
ed the site of an ancient Babylonian
city, but more than one German ex-
plorer has asserted that the ruin con-
tanned nothing more ancient or more
valuable than an Arab mud fort How
ever, all have agreed that, whatever
the ruin contained, the absence of wa
ter and it's location on the border ter
ritory Of several tribes would render
excavation impossible
In my efforts with the Ottoman gov
ernment to obtain firman to open ex-
cavations l was. for inexplicable rea-
sons. refused permission to excavate
the two Biblical cities Ur, in South
Babylonia, and Cutha, in the north
and in spite of the disadvantages
which Bismya presented my next
choice fell upon it.
There is similarity in Babylonian
ruins. Most of them show traces of
surrounding walls, a square staged
temple, a palace or two and a canal,
and it was not difficult to recognize
the forms of most of these structures
at Bismya. With a force of 12O Arab
WOrkmen, each armed with long bar
relied 1int-lOck or more modern
square Mauser. work was begun on
the side of a square shaped hill
somewhat higher than most of the
Others
Just beneath the surface the mound
was filled with fragments of square
Babylonian bricks, showing the re-
mains of a fallen staged tower. and a
few strokes of the pick revealed half
of one, upon which was inscribed the
name of King Dungi, King of Ur, 275O
B. c. Although nothing but the name
was leglble, yet it proved conclusive
that we were eXcavatlng a city, and
not modern Arab ruin, and that the
city was of no mean age, for almost
on the surface were the remains of a
temple constructed 1850 years ago.
1ndSed, this brick and others from the
same wall were, with very few excep-
tions discovered at Bismya
This brick inscription was but a
fore-runner of others more ancient,
which were soon to follow. Just be-
meath it appeared short Inscription
of Naram Sin, the son Of the famous
Sargon, who. according to Nebonidus,
lived about $500 B. c., but to the AS
syriologists of a few years ago was
a mythical character. Less than a
metre below structure 1850 years
old was therefore another a thousand
years older.
The trenches were dug into the hill
until the side of the lower stage of
the tower was reached, and then con-
tinued about the walls in the hopes
of finding a doorway. Shafts were
sunk at the corners, and at less than
metre below a stratum of Sargon
and Naram Sin we came upon plat
form of temple built of plano-convex
bricks, in shape like loaf Of bread,
flat on the bottom and rounded at the
top. These bricks also found in the
very oldest strata at Telloh and Nip
pur, had been assigned by Assyriolo-
gists to period not far from 4500 B.
c. My own subsequent discoveries at
Bismaya confirmed this opinion.
While the workmen were digging a
deep trench along the plano-convex
wall and was standing Oh the sum-
NIT of the temple experimenting the
work young Arab stuck his head
above the trench and excitedly mo-
toned to me. Expecting that some
thing of Importance had been discov-
cred, I fastened into the trench and
there I saw projecting from the hard
dirt a large piece of smooth white
marble which at once suggested a
nude statue. The Arabs, uncertain as
to what they had discovered, became
so exited that I was obliged to re-
move them from the trench and place