The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1933-10-19
FIND REMAINS OF
ANCIENT AQUEDUCT
Tunnel Built by Sennach-
crib About 7O5 B. G.

Chicago.-News of recent discov-
cries of great aqueduet, temples,
and ancient records were brought
home to Chicago by DR.. James Hen
| ry Breasted, who has just returned
after spending several months in the
Near East visiting the twelve ex-
petitions of the Oriental institute of
the University of Chicago. The trip
was the first that Doctor Breasted,
director of the Oriental institute,
had made to the Near East in three
years and a half.
One Of the most important of the
recent discoveries was that of q
section of 3Omile aqueduct built
by Sennacherib. king of Assyria
about 705 B. G. DR.. Thorkild Jacob
sen, who came to the institute on a
Swedish fellowship, and Is now with
DR.. Henri Frankfort, field director
Of the lraq expedition, made the dis
covery.
Doctor Jacobsen was out in the
country when he noticed a native
sitting on a row of blocks, some of
which bore the inscription of Sen
nacherib," Doctor Breasted said.
ION inquiry, he found that the
blocks had come from nearby, and
Doctor Jacobsen, following the clew,
fnnn6 xuhnt hn pnD0rfnA Tn hA
bridge over a river. We received
concession to investigate, and found
that the bridge was a, section Of
great stone aqueduct. This section,
1000 feet long, and 80 feet wide,
magnificently built, carried the wa
ter over river. 1t is supported on
pointed arches, and their use in this
fashion Is the earliest known.
Earliest in Existence.
This aqueduct is the earliest in
existence, aud undoubtedly influ-
enced the Romans in their cOnstruc-
ton. Twenty-Five to thirty miles
long, it carried water from the Kur-
dish mountains to Nineveh, and
among other uses watered that city's
famous gardens. Each pier contains
building inscription Of Sennache-
rib. and when translated. it was
found that he called the aqueduct
'Sennacherib's channel
1.-The annals of Sennacherib give
an account of this channel which
hitherto had not been identified, and
also give the names of whole Sc
ries of villages past which it went.
In one Of the villages near the route
of the aqueduct, Doctor Frankfort
found a purely oral tradition that
these ruins had brought water for
the gardens of Nineveh. The tradi-
ton has the names of the villages
as Sennacherib listed them, al
though the names have long since
changed. That tradition had been
passed down by word of mouth for
1900 years."
Another discovery to which Doc
tor Breasted referred as representa-
tive of the more important recent
finds was that of Gordon Loud who
has charge Of the architectural sur
vey of Khorsabad under Doctor
Frankfort. Mr.. Loud found in the
palace temple previously unknown,
sacred to Nabu, who is referred to
in the Old Testament as Nebo.
zone of Nabu's functions was
that of god of writing" Doctor
Breasted observed, "and we have
hopes of finding in the temple vari-
Gus important records. Mr.. Loud
also found at Khorsabad a large
clay tablet which lists 90 Assyrian
kings, reaching far behind our eaIli-
est known chronology of the Assy-
rian line. The earliest we knew was
a king Ushpia, who hung In the air,
so to speak. This tablet has eight
kings preceding Ushpia, and all the
succession after him. 1t covers
period of thirteen or fourteen hun
dred years, from about 200 B. C. to
$50 B. G.
important Tablets.
"The reliefs at Persepolis were
Tremendously impressive, exceeding
my expectations. They nearly double
in bulk the art of the old Persian
period. Shortly after I had left Per
sepolis l received word from DR.. e.
e. Herzfeld, field director Of the
Persepolis expedition, that in shift
ing his field railroad he had cut
through ridge and discovered hun
dreds of Eliamite cuneiform tablets.
"Eliamite was the pre-Persian Ian
guage, and the records are very i'm
! portant. They apparently relate to
the building Of the palaces at Khor-
sabad, but because Doctor Herzfeld
Is the only member Of the expedi-
ton who did not come down with
malaria and had to leave, they have
not been carefully examined as yet.
"At the present time we have only
the Greek accounts of the great bat
ties of Marathon and Salamis, but
it is not improbable that we shall
find the Persian accounts of these
battles in the records at Perse-
polls"
Doctor Breasted flew 5000 miles
by plane in the Near East in visiting
the expeditions, covering in five min
utes distances that on earlier trips
had required a day by camel. On
this recent visit he saw for the first
time the expeditions and work being
carried on at PersepOlis, and by the