The excavations at Babylon

by Robert Koldewey

Fig. 105.—Pavement slab of Adad-nirari.

The same prolific site yielded also a basalt paving stone with an inscription that showed it to belong to the palace of Adad-nirari (ii.), the son of Asurdan, son of Tiglathpileser (Fig. [105]). Whether this palace of Adad-nirari (911?–891) stood here or in Assyria cannot be proved. At any rate this paving stone appears to have been set in the Principal Citadel of Nebuchadnezzar as an object of interest.

Fifteen fragments of dolerite with inscriptions belong to stelae of the same kind as one that was found by brick robbers shortly before the beginning of our excavations, in the north-east corner of the Principal Citadel. It is an upright semi-cylindrical block inscribed on both sides, on which Nabonidus reports in detail on his endowment of temples in Babylon and other places (see Scheil, “Inscription de Nabonide,” in the Recueil de travaux rel. à la philologie, etc., xviii. p. 15). A block of dolerite which formed part of a thick large stela was found in r 9 of the Kasr plan. It contains in Neo-Babylonian writing a duplicate of the famous inscription which Darius Hystaspes (521–485) engraved on the rocks of Bagistana in Persian, Susian, and Babylonian.

The numerous fragments of building cylinders which have been found on the Kasr, naturally refer principally to the building of the palace, the Ishtar Gate, and the fortification walls. The greater number are Nebuchadnezzar’s, but there are a few of Sardanapalus, Nabopolassar, Nabonidus, and Neriglissar.

A number that were found actually in the Principal Citadel are of buildings outside the Kasr, such as Etemenanki, and of buildings outside Babylon. Thus we have an inscription of Nabonidus of E-ḫul-ḫul in Haran, one of E-bar-ra in Sippara, and one of Nebuchadnezzar from E-ul-la in Sippara, and also an E-an-na of Sardanapalus and others. It appears therefore that such documents were systematically collected and preserved in the Principal Citadel.

Any one who compares the comparatively small area that is excavated with the extent of that which is yet untouched, and realises how much has already been found, will see how much yet remains to be done and acquired in the Principal Citadel, apart from the gain to science that would ensue from laying open the palace buildings.

The palace did not extend quite as far as the fortification wall on the north. The foundations of the front consist of excellent brickwork laid in asphalt and reeds, while in the foundations behind broken brick laid in lime mortar is employed throughout.

Between the palace and the fortification walls there was an open strip in which a wide canal, originally 13 metres broad, which led from the Euphrates, flowed from here almost to the eastern wall. Smaller conduits, 1.2 metres wide, roofed over with tilted bricks, branched off from it through the massive foundations of the Principal Citadel to supply it with water. They were connected with the palace level by quadrangular well shafts. The embankment of the canal in front of the palace and of the northern fortification wall, projecting from their foundations, formed a rampart 2 metres broad, and at this level we have fixed our zero, which serves as the starting-point for the level of the entire city and its buildings. The water-level of Nebuchadnezzar’s time was at about this height, for here the projecting courses of the coverings of the smaller conduits begin, and the pavement in the door of the northern wall is only some 1.5 metres higher than our zero.

It is obvious that the great canal was open above. It was later replaced by a smaller one only 1.8 metres wide, which runs beside its southern bank wall and was certainly covered in. At this later period a broad road 9.5 metres wide led between the palace and the north wall, which consisted of three brick courses laid in asphalt. Upon it were Parthian houses and brick graves. We cut into them with our trench at the mound “Atele” (n 8). On this hill, which rises to 18 metres above zero, stood in Oppert’s time a nebek tree; the Arabs believed that this had grown out of a tent stake that Ali had driven in here. From a shoot of this tree the solitary nebek sprang that still flourishes in the long low region of the Northern Citadel.