Abstract
IT was in 1884, at a meeting of the American Oriental Society, that the first plans of an expedition to Southern Babylonia were projected, and from that year dates the beginning of the systematic scientific work which is being carried on by the Americans at the mounds of Nuffar, the ancient Nippur, with all possible thoroughness. Since the year 1888, there have been four expeditions sent out to excavate this ancient site, and there is still much to be done there. The first resulted in the discovery of a Parthian palace, and many “finds ”from systematic diggings in the Temple of Bel, the cuneiform tablets alone numbering-two thousand; but ill-luck overtook the members of the party, and, owing to trouble with the Arabs, the camp was burnt and they themselves were robbed. However, the next year, on reopening the works, there wras no opposition, and the labours of the expedition were rewarded with eight thousand tablets of the second and third millennium B.C., and in the third campaign many pre-Sargonic ruins were discovered, besides more than twenty thousand tablets. The last expedition, which came to an end in 1900, was the most successful of all; the Parthian palace was completely explored, and, what was more important, the great library of the Temple of Bel was located, and twenty-three thousand clay tablets were excavated therefrom, thus bringing the total number found up to more than fifty thousand.
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Recent Excavations at Nippur . Nature 68, 177–178 (1903). https://doi.org/10.1038/068177d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/068177d0