Fig. 40.—Court in Ninmach Temple.
When we leave the vestibule, as we may well name the first chamber at the gateway, we find ourselves in the court, which was proportionately large and certainly open to the sky, and which gave more or less direct access to the remaining chambers. Immediately opposite lies the entrance to the cella (Fig. [40]), indicated by towers decorated with grooves. From here it must have been possible to behold through the open cella-doors beyond, in the mystic twilight of the Holy of Holies, the cultus image on its pedestal. To the right was a brick-lined well which must have played an important part in the service of the cult. Immediately in front of the entrance to the cella, in the asphalt covering of the pavement, three circular depressions may be observed, in which metal vases, now lost, appear to have stood. Similar cavities may also be seen near the centre of the court. One would expect incense-burners, thymiateria, here, but of these we have no knowledge.
At the time of the final raising of the floor-level, the mud façade of the cella was provided with a slight dressing of kiln bricks, of which there are now only scanty remains. The caskets for offerings at each side of the entrance are there. Originally rectangular, they are much distorted by the settling down of the walls: this also caused a curvature of the pavement, which has been re-levelled in the corners by means of asphalt and broken brick.
The cella had an ante-chamber of similar size, and both have a small side chamber. This side chamber we have termed the Adyton, without any further ground for doing so than the analogy with Greek temple cellae. It appears probable that the secular folk were not allowed to penetrate beyond the ante-chamber. Access to the cella was evidently intentionally rendered difficult by the postament, which projected almost as far as the door—a peculiarity which we shall find with most of the cellae. The postament of the upper floor-level is no longer there. Its principal adjustments could still be traced on the floor and by the fragments of asphalt that cling to the niche in the hinder wall. Below, and almost beneath it, are two postaments lying one above another of burnt brick and bitumen which bear witness to two earlier periods during which the temple was in use. These postaments always rose very slightly above the floor-level, and had a low step in front. Still farther down, at the edge of the foundation, below the postament was the casket of burnt brick usual in this position and containing a small pottery figure of a man holding a slender gold staff in his hand. In other temples we shall see this better preserved. At a still greater depth the excavations reached a natural stratum of alternate sand and mud, as though water had flowed here for some considerable time.
Fig. 41.—Emach cylinder inscription of Sardanapalus.
In the Adyton at the end of the foundations at one corner lay the foundation cylinder of Sardanapalus (Fig. [41]). This was surrounded by sand, and near by lay tablets of the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Thus the cylinder cannot have been found in the place where it was deposited by Sardanapalus, though certainly not far off. For Nebuchadnezzar must have read the four last lines of this document with the same awe with which we read it to-day: “Who with cunning deed shall destroy this record of my name ... bring to the ground, or alter its position, him may Ninmaḫ before Bel, Sarrateia bespeak to evil, destroy his name, his seed in the lands!” (trans. by Delitzsch).
Sardanapalus refers to the founding of the temple in line 13: “At that same time I caused E-maḫ, the temple of the goddess Ninmaḫ in Babil, to be made new.” It can no longer be proved whether and how far the lower part of the walls date back to the time of Sardanapalus. The two lower postaments have no stamp on their bricks, nor has the upper pavement. That the raising of the pavement that Nebuchadnezzar considered necessary was his work is proved by tablets bearing his name which have been found below, and especially by the stamps of the burnt-brick wall which the king caused to be erected round the temple.
