The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-07-07

ed and planned before the next car
be touched.
Add to this that the most ancient
walls were constructed of Sun-burned
brick, packed earth, and some idea
can be obtained of the extreme diff
Guilty of the work The oldest Baby
lonian houses which have been I'M
covered themselves rest on rubbish
= heaps and ruins, but deeper digging
is impossible owing to the fact that
water level had been reached. The
Euphrates channel past 5000 years,
and the primeval dwelling are now
below it, While we are standing at
the bottom of one of these pits work
man struck out with his pick a little
heap of ornaments, a couple of cop
per bracelets and the heads of a
necklace that had been the third
millennium before Christ, and were
restored at last to the light of the
sun. .,--~--
,1~ The Sacred Way.
! The northern part of the palace
mound is as yet almost untouched.
| Here can be seen the sculptured
| block which used to lie among the
earth heaps until a French engineer
! built a pedestal for it and set it up
| like a sentinel above the ruins. 1t
is a colossal lion standing over the
body of a man, who lies with arm
unified. The mans head is broken
away, and the whole group is only
half finished; but there is something
terribly sinister in the aspect of the
great beast with the helpless human
figure beneath his feet. 1t is as
though the WOrkmen of the king had
left for all time an image of destiny,
stepping relentlessly over the gener-
ations of mankind, before they them
selves passed into it's clutches. All
along the east side of the palace
stretches the Via Sacra, contracting
at one point only its splendid width
that it may pass through the gate
that stands midway between the
house of the king and the temple of
the goddess Ishtar. This gate-its
origin is attested by a cruciform in
scription-is the most magnificent
fragment that remains of Nebuchad-
neZZar's constructions.
Four or five times did he fill up
the Via Sacra and raise its level by
several meters, and each time he
built up the brick towers of the
double gate to correspond. The
various levels of the pavements can
be seen on the sides of the eXcava-
ton trench. The towers rear their
height unbrOken, stuendOus mass
of masonry, strong as iron, decorated
on every side with alternate bulls
and dragons cast in relief on the
brick. The noble strength Of the
bulls, stepping out solidly with arch
ed neck, contrasts with the slender,
ferociOus grace of the dragons, and
the two companies form a body
guard worthy of the fate of kings
and gods. Along the walls of the
Via Sacra marched procession of
lions. Fragments of the bricks have
been found and put together in Ber-
/ lin. They, too, were in relief, but
covered with fine enamel, the colors
! laid side by side without the inter-
mission of any cloissonS This art of
enameling is lost, and no modern
workman has been able to initiate it.
The Temple of Ishtar.
/ On the east side of the gate stands
the little Temple of Ishtar, raised on
a high platform, from which you
look down on to the plain where
once lay the city The temple is
built of spn-dried brick, probably in
accordance with hieratic tradition,
which he'd to the ancient building
material used by remote ancestors,
who were un2cquainted with the finer
and more durable burned brick.
Small courts with side chambers lead
into an inner holy of holes" where
in a niche stood The symbol or effigy
| of the goddess. Behind all there is
a narrow, blind passage, which was
probably used by the priests when
/ they COMPOUNDED the common folk
with their sacred hocus pocus. The
Via Sacra pursues from the gate it's
stately way, skirting along the edge
of an immense open court that lay
j between the palace and the temple
of the god Marduk, and turns off at
an angle to the point wherein that
temple lies. 1t has not as yet been
eXcayated, but huge pit sunk in the
center of the mound has laid bare
the walls of the entrance court, built
of sun-dried brick. The excavators
hope to continue their work here; it
will be on easy matter, for the mound
was evidently thickly inhabited in
the Greek and Parthian periods and
its upper levels consist mainly of
refuse heaps.
! When the workmen cut down
through time to reach the temple
gate the stencil combined with the
sitting heat of the pit, was so in
? tolerable that the work had to be
discontinued for several days till a
breeze arose again and made it pos
sible to proceed with it. The exca-
) vations are carried on through al
; the summer heats. Prof. Koldewey
) is unfortunately paying penalty fol