NIPPUR (nfp'pur). The recent work of Ameri can Assyriologists in the Euphratean valley has been productive of marvelous results.
(1) Early Record. Great light has been thrown upon Calnch or Nippur. It is said in the tenth chapter of Genesis: "And the beginning of his (Nimrod's) kingdom was Babel or Bahylon and Erech and Accad, and Caine!) in the land of Shinar" (verse to).
Babylon has long been familiar to the student of both prophecy and history, but Erech and Accad and Calneh were mere names on the bib lical page until the spade of the explorer uncov ered these ancient cities and thus verified the old record in Genesis—a record which some men had boldly assumed to be purely mythical.
(2) Modern Research. It had been thought that some of these ancient cities must still be lying in ruins beneath the desert sands of Meso potamia, and the modern name of Nippur was known to a few scholars, but it remained for the University of Pennsylvania to organize an expe dition for the exploration of the secrets which were so carefully guarded by the desolation of the desert.
Calnch was the ancient fort of Anu, who was one of the principal objects of worship, and the site of this antediluvian town is about sixty miles nearly southeast of Babylon and on the left bank of the Euphrates. It is called Nopher in the Talmud and Nipper or Niffcr later on. The climate is one of the worst which the explorer has been called upon to face. On every side there are extensive marshes which arc reeking with malarial poison and most prolific with sting ing insects, while the heat is nearly insupportable by either American or European. It is no un usual thing to have the temperature reach 120 degrees in the shade, and the burning sandstorms of the desert parch and irritate the skin almost beyond endurance. But the heroic scholars of the American expedition never faltered. and some of them have remained in this treacherous climate. surrounded by the still more treacherous .Arab, for thirty-four months at a time.
These important excavations have been going on for ten years; at first they were under the leadership of Dr. John P. Peters, and for the last eight years under the direction of Professor H. V.
Hilprecht and J. H. Haynes.
(3) Records of Primitive Kings. The work is most carefully done, the sand being shoveled into baskets and then carried by Arabs out to the open plain. As the earth is cautiously re moved the explorers are rewarded by the finding of broken statuary, vases and bowls. It is upon these broken vases that many inscriptions are found, and as they are in a fragmentary condi tion it requires marvelous patience to join the broken pieces and decipher the inscriptions. Dr. Hilprecht has nearly ruined his eyes by this try ing work. combined with the heat and burning sand to which his face has been much exposed.
One of these primitive kings left more than a hundred of these vases, upon which his records had been kept, and each of them bore inscrip tions of between one and two hundred lines. but they were shattered. as is supposed, by invading armies.
(4) Successive Cities and Rulers. Ilere. as in Greece, in Cyprus and in Egypt, one city has been built upon the ruins of another. it would appear that the old temples had been allowed to crumble away and then a new king would level the ruins, build a solid plat form over them and erect new temples and a new city thereon.
Five of these successive cities have been dis covered on the site of Calnch, and each one of them is supposed to represent an interval of cen turies. Far below the they lied the work of Assur-bani-pat the literary king of Assyria. whose strange library was largely recovered some years ago. Ile was probably the "great and noble" Asnapper of Ezra ; .v as he was the brilliant SardanapaIns of the East Ile kept his scribes busily employed at Nineveh in making new editions by copying older Babylonian works. These books were written upon tablets of clay, which were then dried, and thus the page became imperishable unless broken. This king began to reign 668 years before Christ. (See LIBRA RIES.) Going down still farther, the intrepid explorers found the markings of Kadashman-Turgu, but. although many Assyrian kings must have reigned between him and Assur-bani-pal, the dates by this time have grown very uncertain.