The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1907-11-16
The Worlds Oldest Temple.


and deserted because far from water, and on the
border of the territory of several hostile Arab tribes,
lies the low ruin of Bismya. Few explorers have
ever visited it. and those few did at the peril of
their lives Dr. Peters, of New York, while exca-
waiting at Nppur, discovered at Bismya clay tablet
of an ancient date. German explorers reported
to have said that the ruins originated with the CIV
izaton of the Arabs. However, not only the age OF
the ruins, but the and history of the ancient
city of which they are composed continued mys-
terry until recently.
In the autumn of 1900 application for permission
to excavate the ancient Babylonan city of Ur
submitted to the Sublime Porte A year spent at the
Turkish capital in pushing the application from one
department to another resulted only IN a refusal
Permission to excavate at other points then re-
quested with the same result, and it was not until
the autumn of 1903 that American fleet, then in
Turkish waters, forced from the Turks an trade per-
hitting the excavation of Bismya.
A long journey of month the Arabian
desert to Bagdad, and another week southwark into
Babylona, brought DR.. Edgar ]. Banks who de-
scribes the discoveries to Bismya in company with
an intriguing Turkish commissioner, who had been
instructed to place every possible obstacle in his
way and with a few hardly less loyal native
wants.
The work of excavating was begun on Christmas
day, 1903.
The first view of Bismya disappointing. The
fear that the ruins might not date from great
tiquity was increased by their slight elevation above
the surface for nowhere do they exceed forty feet
in height They consist of series of parallel ridges,
about a mile long and half as wide Intersecting
them near the center and dividing the ancient city
into two parts, is the bed of former canal.
An examination of the surface of Babylonan
mound may reveal the nature and the age of what
one may expect to find beneath Most ruins are
covered with the fragments of broken pottery, and
at Bismya the potsherds numerous that the
ground beneath was in places invisible If among the
potsherds are glazed fragments the surface of the
ruin at least does not date from Babylonian times,
but if fragments of polished stone vases
sional flint implement and small rounded bricks
appear, the ruin is of the greatest antiquity Such
were the objects upon the surface of Bismya, and
the fear that the ruins were modern dispelled.
The result was the discovery of the oldest temple
in the world. The walls of the tower appeared
the summit was cleared and the first inscription dis
covered upon the surface was brick stamped with
the name of Dung of 275O B. c. Just beneath it
were other bricks bearing the of UrGur of
$500 B. c.; little lower appeared crumpled piece
of gold with the name of Naram Sin of 1850 B. c.
and just below that level were the large square
bricks peculiar to Sargon of $500 B. c., probably the
first of the Semitic kings of Babylonia Although
DR.. Banks had dug but metre and half below the
bricks of Dungi he had revealed several stratra
tending over the period from $500 B. c. to 275o B. c.
or than 1000 years. and still eleven metres of
earlier ruins lay beneath him. He dug lower
known types of bricks appeared, and two and half
metres from the surface he upon a large plat
form constructed of the peculiar IAanoconvex bricks
which were the building material of $500 B. c.
Shafts were sunk through this platform and through