The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-11-21
The WORLDS Oldest CITY
Where Life Is Said to Date
Back 10000
Years.
MEsOPOTAMIAN BIsMYA
That City Built Upon the
Ruins of Another Older
Civilization.

Gin the following article Dr. Banks
describes the excavations which he
carried out at Bismya, giving a picture
of life is Mesopotamia 5000 years ago,
Pottery was found which dates back
10000 years ago. Discoveries were
made which show the evolution of
bricks and of lamps.)
In a sand-swept belt of central
Babylonia, that country of ancient
ruins, in a region dangerous and de-
serted because far from water, and
on the border of the territory of sew
eral hostile Arab tribes, lies the low
ruin of Bismya. Few explorers have
ever visited it, and those few did so
at the peril Of their lives. DR.. Peters
of New York, while excavating at Nip
pur, discovered at Bismya a clay tablet
of an ancient date. German explorers
are reported to have said that the
ruins originated with the civilization of
the Arabs. However, not only the age
Of the ruins, but the name and his
tory OF the ancient city of which they
are composed, continued a mystery
until recently.
In the autumn of 1900 application
for permission to excavate the aAcient
Babylonian city of Ur was submitted
to the Sublime Porte. A year spent at
the Turkish capital IN pushing the APP
plication from one department to an
other resulted only in a refusal. Per-
mission to excavate at other points
was then requested, with the same re-
suit, and it was not until the autumn
of 1908 that an American feet, then
in Turkish waters, forced from the
Turks an trade, permitting the exca-
waiting Of Bismya.
A long journey Of month across
the Arabian desert to Bagdad and an
other week southwark into Babylonia
brought me to Bismya, in company
with an intriguing Turkish commits
sioner, who had been instructed to
place every possibly obstacle In my
way, and with few hardly less loyal
native servants.
The work of excavating was begun
on Christmas Day, 1908.
The first view OF Bismya was dis
appointing. The fear that ruins might
not date from a great antiquity was
increased by their slight elevation
above the surface, for nowhere dc
they exceed 40 feet in height. They
consist of series of parallel ridges
about a mile long and half as wide
Intersecting them near the center ano
dividing the ancient city into two
parts, Is the bed of former canal.
An examination of the surface Of q
Babyionian mound may reveal the ma
ture and the age Of what one may ex.
. pect to find beneath. Most ruins are
covered with the fragments Of broker
pottery, and at Bisnya the potsherdi
were SO numerous that the ground be.
meath was In places invisible, i
among the potsherds are glazed frag
ments the surface Of the ruin at leas
does not date from Babylonian times
but IL fragments of polished ston,
vases. an occasional flint implement
and small rounded bricks appear, tn,
ruin is of the greatest antiquity. Such
were the objects upon the surface o
Bismya, and the fear that the ruin,
were modern was dispeIled
The result was the discovery of tn,
Oldest temple in the world. The wall,
Of the tower soon appeared; the sum
NIT was cleared, and the first inscrip
ton discovered upon the surface wa,
a brick stamped with the name q
Dungi, of 2750 B. G. Just beneath /
were other bricks bearing the name 0
UrGur of $500 B. c.; a little lower an
peared a crumpled piece Of gold witt
the name Of Naram Sin of $3.50 B. G.
and just below that level were tn,
large square bricks peculiar to Sargoi
Of $500 B. G., probably the first of tn,
Semitic Kings OF Babylonia, Although
we had dug but meter and half be
low the bricks of Dungi, we had re
vealed several strata extending owe
the period from $500 B. c. to 2750 3
c., or more than 1000 years, and still
II meters of earlier ruins lay beneath
us. We dug lower; unknown types O
bricks appeared, and two and a hal
meters from the surface we came upol
a large platform constructed with tn
peculiar piano-convex bricks whic,
were the building material of 1900 r
C. Shafts were sunk Through thi
platform and through stratum afte
stratum of the mud, brick, dirt. ashe
and potsherds below. Five and a hal