THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
crane, stork, heron, and gull being known. Of land birds the ostrich, bustard, partridge, quail, pigeon, turtle-dove, and ortalon are still found. Birds of prey are the hawk and the eagle.
m. Exploration and Excavation: Antiquarian interest in Babylonia had always been greater than in Assyria, perhaps because the region had oftener been visited and described. Bricks with inscriptions had been seen and sent to England by the East India Company's agents at Bassorah; these, however, were not the result of excavation but of purchase or of superficial search of the mounds. They served, none the less, to awaken and maintain interest in the country. For the background of Babylonian excavation see Assyria, III. The first excavator in Babylon was Claudius James Rich, who in Dec, 1811, visited Babil, had some Arabs dig at the top of the mound, found layers of inscribed bricks, and purchased others from the natives, which when sent home proved to carry
writing of the same general character
i. Rich as that of the Persepolitan inscrip-
and tions. In 1826-28 Capt. Robert Mig-
Mignan. nan was attached to the East India
Company's station at Bassorah, in command of the military escort. He was interested in exploratory work and particularly in the region between Bagdad and Bassorah. In his travels in the district he made some small researches, as for instance at Kassr, where he put thirty men at work, found a platform of inscribed bricks, a number of seal cylinders, and a barrel cylinder, the first ever found by a European, and some remains of the Greek age.
Attached as geologist to the Turko-Persian Frontier Commission (1850-54) was William Kennett Loftus. In the course of a ride from Baghdad to Mohammera he had picked up or bought a number of small antiquities, and proposed to excavate for more at Warka. Permission from his commanding officer was obtained, and in 1850 Loftus set to work. A number of " slippered " coffins were secured whole, and by the ingenious device of pasting thick layers of paper inside and out three were kept intact and sent to the British Museum. In 1854 Loftus excavated a number of buildings, recovered many inscribed bricks but
no works of art, in which he was most 2. Loftus. interested. The finds of Botta at
Nineveh (see Assyria, III, 3) seemed so great in comparison with his own that he became discouraged even with his success in finding mortuary remains, tablets and vases, and a considerable number of contract tablets of different periods. He removed his operations to Senkereh, discovered there the temple of Shamash, found bricks that brought Hammurabi into light and recovered the records of King Ur-gur (2700 b.c.) and other objects relating to the period between him and Nabonidus (539 b.c). Work at other mounds, as atTell-Sifr, was productive of inscriptions dated under the first dynasty of Babylon, and of utensils of copper belonging to the third pre-Christian millennium. During this same period Layard and Rassam made an essay at Tell-Mohammed near Bagdad, but found little of interest and importance. Excavations
at Babil, Kassr, and elsewhere were also resultless. At Niffar little besides the slipper coffins rewarded the workers, and Layard was led to abandon as uripromising the site from which half a century later the great finds of the expedition of the University of Pennsylvania were recovered.
The French expedition under Fulgence Fresnel
and Jules Oppert began work at Kassr, Tell-Amran,
and elsewhere near Babylon in 1852. There
were considerable results from the gleanings of
the next three years, the most valuable being the
marble vase of Naram-Sin. Unfortunately the
whole was lost in the Tigris with the finds which
had come from Assyria. Under the
3. Fresnel direction of Rawlinson, the Biitish
and vice-consul at Bassorah undertook
Oppert. work at Mugheir. It was speedily determined that the temple there, which had never wholly collapsed, belonged to the moon-god Sin, which comprised the results of building operations from the time of Ur-gur (2700 b.c.) to that of Nabonidus, and the inscriptions of the latter recording his work of restoration were found. Sufficient was unearthed to carry the history of the place as far back as 4000 B.C., but the site still awaits systematic excavation. Abu-Shahrein was examined and found to be unique in the quantity of stone used on the great structures, and evidences were also discovered which implied pre- Sargonic date. It is a promising site for future work. At Birs Nimrud examination of the ruins was undertaken, and the experience of Rawlinson enabled him to point out the exact place where cylinders would be found (which proved to be those of Nebuchadrezzar), in the corners of the temple of Nebo.
For about twenty years systematic operations were suspended while scholars at home were examining the material accumulated. Meanwhile Ernest de Sarzec had been appointed vice-consul for the French at Bassorah. He secured the good-will of Nasir Pasha, then the real ruler
4. De of the district, and began a series of
Sarzec. campaigns at Telloh which covered the period between 1877 and 1900, the year before his death. The net results of the work there were the discovery of Gudea's bricks and of the temple which he built; nine diorite statues in the highest form of Babylonian art yet discovered, headless indeed, but inscribed; two cylinders with the longest inscriptions in Sumerian yet discovered; and, in 1894, a treasure of 30,000 tablets, thousands of which were stolen by the Arabs because De Sarzec was unable to care for them. The temple of Nin-Girsu or Ninib, god of Lagash, was uncovered, also the celebrated stele of vultures which represents the birds carrying away from Gishku parts of the bodies of the slain enemies of King Eannatum, art objects of the highest finish in the shape of round trays of onyx, the silver vase of Entenema, beautifully chased, and votive statues. The tablets recovered were mainly commercial and administrative, the series running from c. 4000 B.C. to about 2550 b.c The additional fact was developed that by 4000 b.c the writing had already passed beyond the stage of picture-writing.