IC-NRLF 
 
 7fl 
 
LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 
 
 Class 
 
apers of % 
 
 iral Institate of 
 
 REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA 
 
 1884-85. 
 
 BY WILLIAM HAYES WARD. 
 
 ARCHOLOGIGAL 
 INSTITUTE 
 
 OF 
 AMERICA. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 jrtj for tlje Eitstttute bg 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM, AND COMPANY. 
 
 LONDON: N. TRUBNER AND CO. 
 1886. 
 
of % ^ttjffoloijttal Institute of Jmtrita. 
 
 REPORT 
 
 ON THE 
 
 WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA 
 
 1884-85. 
 
 BY WILLIAM HAYES WARD. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 for tfje Institute {tg 
 CUPPLES, UPHAM, AND COMPANY. 
 
 LONDON: N. TRUBNER AND CO. 
 1886. 
 
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 ARCH^OLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA. 
 
 Council, 1885-86. 
 
 CHARLES ELIOT NORTON, CAMBRIDGE, President. 
 HENRY DRISLER, NEW YORK, Vice- President. 
 MARTIN BRIMMER, BOSTON. 
 FRANCIS PARKMAN, BOSTON. 
 WILLIAM W. GOODWIN, CAMBRIDGE. 
 FREDERIC J. DE PEYSTER, NEW YORK. 
 RUSSELL STURGIS, NEW YORK. 
 A. L. FROTHINGHAM, JR., BALTIMORE. 
 ALFRED EMERSON, BALTIMORE. 
 
 Treasurer. 
 GEORGE WIGGLESWORTH, 
 
 8 CONGRESS STREET, BOSTON. 
 
 Secretary. 
 ARTHUR L. FROTHINGHAM, JR., 
 
 29 CATHEDRAL STREET, BALTIMORE. 
 
REPORT 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM HAYES WARD, 
 
 IN CHARGE OF THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 
 
 project of an expedition to Babylonia had its origin 
 -L in the consultations of several members of the American 
 Oriental Society, held at meetings of that society and of the 
 Society of Biblical Exegesis and Archaeology. Among those 
 taking part in these consultations were Professors Toy and 
 Lyon, of Harvard University ; Dr. John P. Peters, now Pro- 
 fessor in the Episcopal Theological School at Philadelphia; 
 Professor Francis Brown, of Union Theological Seminary ; 
 Professor I. H. Hall, now of the Metropolitan Museum ; and 
 myself. An organization was effected, which afterwards con- 
 nected itself with the Archaeological Institute of America ; and 
 it was decided that it was desirable to send a preliminary ex- 
 pedition to Chaldea, which should spend the winter months in 
 that country, and investigate the practicability of further exca- 
 vations there, and then return and endeavor by its reports to 
 arouse such an interest in the subject as might result in a 
 well-equipped expedition for more prolonged and thorough 
 research and excavation. It was thought that such a prelimi- 
 nary expedition might not be absent from the country more 
 than six months, and that $5,000 would be sufficient to cover 
 its entire expense. Committees were appointed to solicit 
 
6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 subscriptions in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Scarcely 
 had the effort of securing the funds begun when we were in- 
 formed that Miss Catherine Lorillard Wolfe, of New York, 
 had generously offered to contribute the whole amount. 
 The expedition bears the name of the Wolfe Expedition to 
 Babylonia. 
 
 I was appointed to lead the expedition ; and it was under- 
 stood that Messrs. Clarke and Sterrett, who had been in the 
 service of the Archaeological Institute of America at Assos 
 and elsewhere, should accompany me. I undertook the work 
 with not a little apprehension that the general preparation 
 which my long interest in Assyriology had given me did 
 not provide such a thorough and minute knowledge of the 
 geography of Chaldea and of the cuneiform inscriptions as 
 was to be desired. I still regret, for the interests of science, 
 that some of the younger scholars of the country, who have 
 made Assyriology their specialty, could not have taken the 
 burden upon them. I have, however, done my part as well as 
 my powers would allow, and must pass over 'the completion of 
 the task to the more fortunate men who shall come after me. 
 
 I left New York Sept. 6, 1884, and went direct to Lon- 
 don, where I spent nearly three weeks, mostly working in the 
 British Museum, under the direction of Messrs. Budge and 
 Pinches. I also had the advantage of a day with Professor 
 Sayce, at Oxford, consulting with him on the objects of this 
 expedition. The information I obtained in England, and the 
 advice and help most freely and generously given by the offi- 
 cers of the British Museum and others, were of great service 
 to me. I was urged to make special inquiry as to the chief 
 sources of supply of the tablets and other similar objects which 
 are continually finding their way to Europe, and to remember 
 that the collection of these small and inconspicuous written 
 monuments is of the first importance. It is the written tablets 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 7 
 
 in the British Museum, and not the large and showy slabs and 
 bulls, which make that Museum the school where men of every 
 nation must go to study Assyriology. I therefore gave partic- 
 ular attention to such minute study of the tablets, cylinders, 
 and other monuments as would enable me to distinguish the 
 genuine from the counterfeit, of which there have been many 
 made and sent to Europe. It was impressed upon my mind 
 that if the prime object of my expedition was to examine and 
 photograph the ruins themselves, and learn what might be the 
 chance of exhuming fresh treasures from them in a future ex- 
 pedition, the duty of learning what is now to be found in the 
 hands of the local collectors of antiquities, and what might be 
 at once secured for our museums, was hardly second to it. 
 
 I desired much to take Berlin in my way to Constantinople, 
 so as to confer with Dr. Sachau and Dr. Schrader, and to 
 see the Museum there. But it seemed more important that 
 I should see the fine collection made in Lower Chaldea by 
 M. de Sarzec ; and, time pressing, I took the shorter route, 
 spending three days in the Louvre and in the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale, examining the Tello sculptures and the collections 
 of seal-cylinders. I also had the privilege of an interview 
 with M. Menant. Thence, to avoid quarantine at Constanti- 
 nople, I took the overland route, stopping on the way to study 
 the small collections, chiefly of cylinders, at Munich (where I 
 met Dr. Hommel), Vienna, and Buda Pesth. 
 
 It was necessary to go to Constantinople for two reasons. 
 Our Secretary of State had instructed the American Min- 
 ister there to ask for us such a firman as would secure for 
 our party all needful recognition and help. On reaching 
 Constantinople I found that great difficulty had been experi- 
 enced in securing these letters. Twice the interpreter at- 
 tached to the Porte had translated the word "exploration " by 
 a term implying excavation ; and, that being a thing strictly 
 
8 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 forbidden, the firman was once and again refused. But long 
 and patient explanation had finally made it clear that no ex- 
 cavation was intended ; and at last, on the day before leaving 
 Constantinople, vizieral letters were given me, directing the 
 governors of Aleppo, Mosul, and Baghdad to give our party 
 all necessary help, but expressly stating that no excavations 
 were to be allowed. These letters being received, I called on 
 the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Interior, and Education, 
 and on the Director of the Museum, and received from them 
 the utmost politeness. I may add here that I have only thanks 
 to express for the attention and politeness and real kindness 
 I received from Turkish officials wherever I went. Scarce an 
 exception can I recall. Their helpfulness deserves special and 
 honorable mention. 
 
 It was necessary, also, for me to complete my party in Con- 
 stantinople. In London I heard from Mr. Joseph T. Clarke, 
 then unfortunately absent in Germany, that he would be unable 
 to be a member of our party. He felt it necessary to complete 
 his report on the Assos Expedition before entering on any 
 other work. I had already had correspondence with Presi- 
 dent Washburn, of Robert College, Constantinople, about 
 securing the assistance of Mr. J. H. Haynes, an instruc- 
 tor in Robert College, who had been connected as photog- 
 rapher with the Assos Expedition, and who had accompanied 
 Dr. J. R. S. Sterrett, in the same capacity in explorations in 
 Asia Minor. Mr. Haynes consented to form one of our party, 
 and to undertake the general charge of the caravan, in addi- 
 tion to the work of photographing. The safe conduct of the 
 expedition owes very much to his judgment, firmness, and tact. 
 I must also express my obligations to President Washburn 
 and the other gentlemen connected with Robert College, for 
 much kind assistance rendered to me. Also special thanks 
 are due to Mr. W. W. Peet, treasurer of the American Board 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 9 
 
 of Missions, who put at my disposal all the local treasuries of 
 the Board, and made my financial way easy from Constanti- 
 nople to Baghdad. 1 
 
 After a stay of five days in Constantinople, Mr. Haynes and 
 myself, with a young man who was to act as attendant and in- 
 terpreter, took steamer for Mersin, on the Cilician coast. At 
 Smyrna we were joined by Dr. Sterrett, who came from 
 Athens to meet us. It was extremely fortunate for the expe- 
 dition that it could obtain the services of these two gentlemen, 
 who had had experience in explorations in Asia Minor, and 
 who possessed a sufficient command of the Turkish language. 
 Their archaeological labors, however, had been confined to 
 the zones of Greek culture, and had not invaded the Shemitic 
 fields. 
 
 From Mersin we rode one day, by carriage, through Tarsus 
 to Adana, where carriage roads cease. There we bought one 
 horse, and with other hired animals went to Marash, attracted 
 thither by its being an important seat of Hittite civilization. 
 The Rev. Henry Marden, of the American Mission there, has 
 given much attention to the Hittite remains; and it is he who 
 discovered the Hittite character ol the two large stone lions 
 on the citadel of Marash, one of which, covered with hiero- 
 glyphics, is now, as I have mentioned, in the museum at 
 Constantinople. A second, better preserved, but without in- 
 scription, still remains in Marash ; and a considerable number 
 of other complete or fragmentary monuments of black basalt 
 exist in the vicinity, of which I have photographs, or full 
 notes and figures. Several ruined Hittite towns exist in the 
 neighborhood which should be explored. The hospitality of 
 
 1 I may mention that while in Constantinople I visited the Imperial Ottoman 
 Museum, under the charge of the accomplished scholar, Hemdy Bey. This 
 museum is not rich in Assyriological objects, but it possesses several of the 
 most important monuments of the Hittite hieroglyphics. Here are the four 
 famous Hamath stones and the remarkable lion from Marash. 
 
10 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 the American missionaries at Marash, as well as at Aintab, 
 Mardin, and elsewhere, knew no limits. Wherever these mis- 
 sionaries are to be found they supply an enlightening influence 
 which every traveller recognizes. I can only indorse all that 
 Dr. Sachau says on the subject. 1 
 
 Two days more took us to Aintab, where we made up our 
 caravan, which consisted, besides ourselves and the interpre- 
 ter taken at Constantinople, of a Moslem for general service, 
 but specially charged with the care of our riding horses, a 
 cook and two muleteers, seven horses, five mules, and a 
 donkey. It was thought best for us to purchase our animals 
 rather than to hire them, as we should thus be independent 
 in our movements, and we could probably sell the creatures 
 at the end of the trip for nearly as much as they had cost us. 
 This proved judicious, although going down the Euphrates 
 by caravan took perhaps a little longer than it would have 
 done by raft. In Chaldea it would, however, have been im- 
 possible for us to hire horses for our trip. 
 
 Leaving the pleasant American circle and the American 
 college at Aintab, we went, accompanied by Missionary 
 Lee, of Marash, to Jerablus, on the Euphrates River. This 
 is the site of the old Hittite capital, Carchemish ; and I 
 was very willing to go a day or two out of my way to see 
 with how much thoroughness the English explorations had 
 been carried on here. George Smith first discovered .the 
 Hittite monuments here, which are now in the British 
 Museum ; but the work of excavating was carried on by the 
 British consul at Aleppo. The immense mound on the bank 
 of the river has been pierced in one or two places, but 
 only very imperfectly explored. It is to be regretted that 
 Mr. Cameron did not remove the remains that were found. 
 Only the inscribed stones of basalt were taken away, but the 
 
 1 Reise in Syrien und Mesopotamien, p. 422. Leipzig, 1883. 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. n 
 
 slabs with figures in relief were left. The large slabs of gyp- 
 sum are so fine and peculiar that it would have been abun- 
 dantly worth while to remove them at the expense of a great 
 deal of labor. Even after these years of exposure, and though 
 much more cracked and worn than they were, it is a great 
 pity that they should be left there. They would be a price- 
 less treasure to any museum. There is a fine basalt statue 
 of a beardless deity of nearly human proportions, in perfect 
 condition, except that it is broken in two in the middle, which 
 might have been easily transported. We succeeded in lifting 
 the upper part upon the lower for the purpose of a photo- 
 graph ; and we secured photographs of the other remains in 
 sight. Of course we did no excavation. 
 
 The Hittite Empire existed side by side with the Assyrian, 
 and much less is known of it than of the latter. Its history 
 is one of the lacuna which need to be filled up ; and its rela- 
 tion to Assyria brought it within the legitimate scope of our 
 investigations. It is very desirable that a special expedition 
 should have the opportunity to make searches after Hittite 
 remains. We learned enough as to where these are to be 
 found to assure us that such an expedition would not be 
 fruitless. 
 
 From Jerablus we went up the river to Birejik, where we 
 crossed the Euphrates on rude boats, and found ourselves 
 in Upper Mesopotamia. A day's journey from Birejik, at 
 Arslan Tash, we found and photographed two enormous lions 
 in black basalt, which must have guarded the gateway of a 
 city of Assyrian antiquity. One of them is still standing, 
 while the other has been thrown down on its side. They are 
 of ruder workmanship than the alabaster lions and bulls of 
 Nineveh. The slabs on which the lions are sculptured in 
 high relief are eleven feet ten inches long, by seven feet ten 
 inches high ; and the lions are represented, as is common in 
 
12 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 Assyrian sculpture, with five feet and legs. Near by is a pros- 
 trate bull, broken into two pieces. With the help of the people 
 of the neighborhood we got them into position to photograph ; 
 but before we could accomplish it the patience of the fickle 
 people was exhausted, and they pushed the stones over again, 
 and refused to allow us to finish the work. Measurements 
 hastily made and recorded gave the dimensions of 1.35 metres 
 long by i.oo high, and 1.05 thick. The stone had been split 
 longitudinally, and lay with the two sculptured sides down. 
 There appeared to have been two heads originally, but one 
 was gone. A square hole a foot wide was cut in the top of 
 the back. The people were so surly that we were glad to 
 get away safely. For two miles after leaving Arslan Tash 
 we saw signs of a large city once there. We were told that 
 an hour or two off are two villages, Old and New Saruj, with 
 plenty of ruins. Our route took us till sunset through a rich 
 plain of red earth, with cone villages on little elevations. 
 The houses are made wholly of mud or clay, and are an 
 aggregation of from two to five or six cones, each running 
 up to a high point. They would form a mound rapidly as 
 they fall to ruins. Reaching the end of the plain about sun- 
 set, we came to a line of hills with old quarries, occupied by 
 the tents of shepherd Arabs. The next day we went up a 
 long winding ascent of hills, by a rocky and difficult path, 
 until we struck the Turkish highway an hour out from Urfa. 
 It is only a foundation for a road, and our animals instinctively 
 avoided the stones. We reached Urfa about 2.30 P. M., and 
 found our missionary companion, Mr. Lee, already there, and 
 the mission house ready to receive and entertain us. 
 
 On Wednesday, November 26, we left Urfa at about 
 10 A. M. It was our earnest desire to go direct to Mardin ; 
 but we were so emphatically told that it would not be safe 
 that we were over-persuaded to go round by Diarbekir. A 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 13 
 
 little after sunset we reached Kara-pungar; and a second day 
 of eleven hours took us to Sevrek. The country is thickly 
 bestrewn with blocks of basalt, which become more and more 
 numerous, until the surface of the ground is black with them, 
 during the next two days' journey to Diarbekir, a consider- 
 able town on the Tigris River. We spent two days in Diar- 
 bekir, examining its walls and studying its antiquities, and 
 resting over the Sabbath. We took photographs of a number 
 of old Cufic mortuary inscriptions lately found. 
 
 Having left Diarbekir late Monday afternoon, we went 
 down the Tigris, only an hour and a half, to the old Syrian 
 Catholic monastery of Charohieh, where we examined the few 
 books in its library, and spent the night. Tuesday, Decem- 
 ber 2, we went to Janiki, leaving the fertile basalt region 
 and coming into the barren limestone. The next day we 
 went over the hills to Mardin, being met at a distance from 
 the city by a party of American missionaries, to whom we 
 had telegraphed from Diarbekir. 
 
 We were entertained with great hospitality by our Ameri- 
 can friends in Mardin, and spent the time in examining the 
 antiquities of this famous and beautifully situated old city. 
 Mardin would be a most important centre for investigation of 
 the ruins in the plain before it. It occupies a strong and 
 commanding position on the steep hillside, looking southward 
 to the plain, which extends as far as the eye can reach. Not 
 less than a hundred mounds, sites of old cities and villages, 
 are visible from the city, some of which, like Ras-el-Ain, have 
 already yielded valuable results to explorers. 
 
 Friday, December 5, we left Mardin for Mosul, accompanied 
 by Mr. Gates, one of the missionaries. Two days brought 
 us to Midhyat, a comparatively lively town of five thousand 
 inhabitants, and a centre of trade for the Tur-Abdin region of 
 Jacobite Syrians. About Midhyat are numbers of decayed 
 
14 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 and impoverished monasteries, containing many Syriac manu- 
 scripts which are perishing from neglect. 
 
 On Monday we left Midhyat, and attempted, at the convent 
 Deir- el-Omar, to secure a fine, large, and ancient manuscript 
 of the Gospels. But though we succeeded in making a bar- 
 gain for it, and carried it off with us from the convent (and it 
 was as large as a man could well carry on horseback), the monks 
 changed their minds about it, and followed us in so threat- 
 ening a manner, offering back the money we had paid, that 
 we were obliged to return it. We only succeeded, in our very 
 hasty trip, in securing some fragments four or five centuries 
 old, which have been reported on before the American Ori- 
 ental Society by Professor I. H. Hall. We passed through 
 Basebrina, a famous seat of a monastery, and the vigorous 
 town of Azzeh, and reached Jezireh, a town of nine hundred 
 houses, on the Tigris, on the afternoon of Wednesday, Decem- 
 ber 10. The next day we went down the river to Feshkha- 
 bur, where we crossed the river ; and on Friday night we 
 reached Ysmil, passing numbers of tels on these two days. 
 On Saturday a long and hard journey of fourteen hours 
 took us into Mosul, where the same house had been engaged 
 for us and our caravan that was occupied by Layard when he 
 was exploring here. 
 
 We made Mosul our headquarters from Saturday evening, 
 December 13, till Thursday afternoon, December 18. During 
 these days we went over the ruins of Nineveh as opened, in 
 Koyunjik, by Layard, or, as still unopened, at Nebby Yunus, 
 and protected by a village and a Turkish graveyard, and the 
 tomb of Jonah, covering the palaces of Sennacherib and Esar- 
 haddon. We also rode out to Khorsabad, the scene of Botta's 
 and Place's explorations. At Koyunjik are still to be seen 
 exposed the lower portions of a few of the engraved slabs 
 that lined the walls of the palaces. We also noticed two 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 15 
 
 colossal but unfinished bulls of Sennacherib ; and at Khorsa- 
 bad, in a hole where it was well protected, the head, projecting 
 out of the earth, of a magnificent and perfectly preserved bull 
 of Sargon. A triangular alabaster altar, three feet high, with 
 a circular top, and bearing on the edge Sargon's name, was 
 observed set up in a village between Khorsabad and Mosul, 
 where it had been left, I suppose, by the French explorers. 
 At Mosul we visited the collection made by M. Siouffi, the 
 French consul. 
 
 On the afternoon of December 18 we went out with our 
 caravan, a distance of a few miles, to Karakush, and were 
 received at the Catholic Syrian monastery, where we saw but 
 one book of value, a manuscript Syro-Arabic dictionary, com- 
 piled by an Italian priest in the last century. In the wall 
 was a Syriac inscription, dated nine centuries ago. On the 
 floor were laid numbers of bricks, with Sargon's name, brought 
 from Keremlis. 
 
 Friday, December 19, leaving the caravan to go directly to 
 the ford of the Zab at Kellek, we started for Nimrud, explored 
 by Layard. The immense ziggurat> or tower, there seems to 
 have yielded little fruit to the spade ; but there are long lines 
 of friezes, covered with figures and inscriptions, which have 
 lain exposed to the action of the air, and have suffered vastly 
 more in these thirty years than in the twenty-five centuries 
 previous. It seems a great pity that they could not have been 
 covered up again. 
 
 Saturday night, December 20, we reached Erbil, the Arbela 
 of ancient history, where we spent Sunday at the public khan. 
 Erbil, famous not only in Greek history for the battle that 
 bears its name, but also in Assyrian mythology as the seat 
 of the worship of the Venus, or Ishtar of Arbela, is one of the 
 most interesting cities we visited. It seems almost as if the 
 Arbela of antiquity had come down to us, scarcely changed. 
 
1 6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 Here we have the rare sight of the immense artificial mound, 
 or acropolis, on which the old city was built, still occupied, 
 surrounded by its wall, to which an ascent goes up the side of 
 the hill, till it enters the gate. Doubtless great treasures are 
 hidden under the city, but it is impracticable to hope to dig 
 for the temple of Ishtar, which is doubtless there. 
 
 Monday, December 22, we left Erbil, and passed down the 
 generally easy and level plain to the east of the Tigris, by way 
 of Altiin Kupri, Kerkuk, Tauk, Selahieh, and Kara-tepe, to 
 Baghdad, passing many mounds of which we took note ; and 
 hastening as rapidly as possible, on account of the illness of 
 Dr. Sterrett, we reached Baghdad Wednesday night, Decem- 
 ber 31, thirteen days from Mosul, and eleven from Erbil. 
 Since leaving Erbil our companion, Dr. Sterrett, had been 
 seriously ill, and it was with great suffering and difficulty that 
 he was carried into Baghdad. Dr. Bowman, the excellent 
 physician of the British consulate-general, under whose kind 
 and skilful care he was immediately put, said that if the jour- 
 ney had been prolonged one day longer he would probably 
 not have recovered. The recovery was slow, as he was re- 
 duced to great weakness. Thanks to the kindness of Mr. 
 Hodgson, of the English Church Missionary Society, in 
 whose hospitable house he found room and attention, and 
 to the medical care of Dr. Bowman, he was well provided for 
 there, where we were obliged to leave him when we left 
 Baghdad for our exploration of Southern Chaldea. 
 
 We remained in Baghdad nearly two weeks. The English 
 consul-general, Mr. Plowden, had kindly made arrangements 
 for us by which a commodious house was put at our disposal, 
 as there are in the city no hotels or khans for travellers. I 
 devoted my time, while our animals were recruiting, and 
 arrangements were making for our new and difficult trip, to 
 obtaining the fullest possible information about the antiquities 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 17 
 
 which find a market there, and are thence sent to Europe. I 
 made the acquaintance of all those who have been employed 
 in George Smith's or Mr. Rassam's explorations, or who are 
 interested in antiquities. Baghdad is a city of 150,000 in- 
 habitants, one third of them Jews, who claim to possess a 
 board of rabbis learned in the Talmud beyond any others in 
 the world, and holding the immediate succession of the old 
 rabbinic school, which gave us the Babylonian Talmud. The 
 thoroughly Oriental character of the city may be judged from 
 the fact that we did not see in it a single carriage. Indeed, 
 the streets would not allow two carriages to pass each other. 
 
 On Monday, January 12, we left Baghdad for Babylon and 
 Hillah, on the way visiting Abu-Habba, explored by Mr. Ras- 
 sam and the site of the Sippara of Shamash. My visit there 
 was unsatisfactory, and I was obliged on our return to visit 
 it again, so that I will speak of it later. 
 
 We went over the hills of Babylon, and made the circuit of 
 the walls, visiting Babil, Jimjimeh, Kasr, and Homera, and 
 taking photographs. The great tower of Babil is being gut- 
 ted by the Arabs, who dig its brick for building purposes. 
 It is the quarry of Hillah, but is not fruitful of antiquities. 
 The little parties constantly digging in Jimjimeh and Kasr 
 open many graves, obtaining gold objects, tablets, etc., which 
 they dispose of in Baghdad. Scientific explorations have not 
 been carried on in Babylon, except it be in the ziggurat of 
 Babil ; and hardly any clew is yet had to its palaces and 
 temples. 
 
 We entered Hillah Friday evening, January 16. Hillah 
 is a town of 10,000 inhabitants, on the west bank of the 
 Euphrates. We made it our headquarters for five days, im- 
 proving our time in completing our preparations for our jour- 
 ney In the desert of Southern Chaldea, in communicating 
 with the dealers in antiquities, and in visiting Birs Nimrud, 
 
1 8 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 the ancient Borsippa, and the traditional site of the Tower of 
 Babel. As this great ruin has been often described, it is not 
 necessary to say more than that Mr. Rassam has done good 
 work here and on the elevation called El-Khalil, opposite the 
 tower, in his last expedition. We found the large and ancient 
 building which stood near the foot of the Tower hill and op- 
 posite El-Khalil, thoroughly opened, and the ancient walls of 
 the rooms standing in good preservation. But this large 
 mound is by no means exhausted. The tower, or ziggurat, 
 has been pretty thoroughly examined by Oppert, Rawlinson, 
 and Rassam ; but on El-Khalil the building opened by Mr. 
 Rassam is little more than a beginning, and the men employed 
 by him did not hesitate to point out to us the places where 
 they believed a little digging would be sure to find tablets. 
 
 Wednesday, January 21, we began our long-anticipated 
 journey through the country to the south of Babylon, lying 
 between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The country 
 through which we were to go had not been visited by any 
 European traveller for over thirty years, and portions of it 
 never. No American traveller had ever been through the 
 district. Along the few larger branches which flow from the 
 Euphrates are a few scattering small villages built of mats 
 and reeds, and the wandering Arabs have their tents here 
 and there. It is generally an absolutely barren country, 
 because of the lack of irrigation, though capable of the 
 greatest fertility ; and in portions is covered by moving 
 hills of sand. There are also immense swamps and lakes ; 
 and it is only in the winter months that the ground is dry 
 enough for travel. I was in constant anxiety lest the rise 
 of the rivers might make it impossible to proceed in a coun- 
 try which is liable to be converted into swamps, where there 
 are no bridges over the rivers, and where the population is 
 not large enough to provide ferry-boats except at rare 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. ig 
 
 crossings. Again and again I was told that if I went farther 
 south the floods would shut me in so that it would be im- 
 possible to escape with my caravan. At times we travelled 
 for hours through the water. On one occasion our party in a 
 swamp of reeds and water, one or two feet deep, led by an 
 Arab spearman, were obliged to turn aside for wild boars that 
 stood their ground and would not move for us. Moreover, 
 the country is considered by no means safe for travellers. 
 The Turkish government, which generally has its military 
 stations fifteen or twenty miles apart, has almost none here. 
 Indeed, we took a single mounted soldier with us from Hillah, 
 and did not find a place where we could exchange him till we 
 had reached nearly the southern limit of our journey, and so 
 we brought him back with us to Hillah. We had alarms of 
 attacks at night, and one day we were followed for hours by 
 mounted Arabs, and before night were stopped by a party of 
 fifteen or twenty who had gathered to withstand us. Yet 
 I must testify that the general treatment we received from 
 both agricultural and nomadic Arabs was extremely hospi- 
 table. We treated them with confidence, and they merited 
 it. We were everywhere at their mercy ; but I think that by 
 putting on a bold face, and trusting them, doing them every 
 kindness we could, we found our way everywhere as easy as 
 the nature of the country and the quality of the food would 
 admit of. More than once, when I was compelled to take 
 an interpreter and guide, and go alone to a distance from 
 the caravan to visit some mound off from our route, I slept 
 in the black tents of the Arabs, and without spoon or 
 knife or fork ate of their rice. One of our chief difficulties 
 was to get food for our animals. Indeed, sometimes we 
 could get no barley, and were compelled to feed the horses 
 with rice. Our own food was not all that could be de- 
 sired, and it was not easy to keep up our strength. I 
 
20 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 doubt very much if our native servants could be hired for 
 any money to repeat the trip, they were in such constant 
 anxiety. " Bad people! bad people!" they would constantly 
 repeat, and ask us when we would turn about for home. It 
 was a great relief to us all to get back safely to Hillah five 
 weeks after we left it. 
 
 Without a map it would be impossible to give a clear idea 
 of our route. It will suffice to mention a number of the 
 principal mounds visited by us. El-Hymar, as Mr. Rassam 
 calls it, or El-Ohemir, as we heard it, is the first mound east 
 from Babylon, and was attacked by Mr. Rassam, who, how- 
 ever, made but slight excavations. Zibliye is not a large 
 mound ; but it possesses a conspicuous ziggurat, and no exca- 
 vation has ever been made there. Niffer is a mound of vast 
 extent, separated in two parts by what the Arabs declare 
 to be the Shatt-el-Nil ; it is about two miles in diameter, and 
 has its tower near the middle of the northeastern portion. 
 The mound is washed and gullied by rain, and is in places 
 so steep that it is difficult for horses to climb it. Here and 
 there layers of unburnt brick are visible. No digging worth 
 mentioning has ever been done here, though the city the 
 Nipur of the inscription, and probably the Calneh of Genesis 
 was one of the oldest and most important in the whole of 
 Babylonia. There is a considerable population of Arabs in 
 the AfFej marshes in the vicinity, so that it would be easy to 
 obtain workmen for excavation. It would richly repay exten- 
 sive exploration. 
 
 Farther south is Bismya, a large mound, with a wall about 
 three miles in circumference, which seems to have been the 
 fortress of a swampy region. At the western corner there is 
 a large elevation, and the mound rises in various other por- 
 tions of the enclosure. Dhahar is another large mound, but 
 presents no very salient features. It deserves investigation. 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 21 
 
 Hammam has been visited by Loftus and others, but never 
 really explored. It is visible from a great distance, with 
 its upright tower of unburnt brick still standing. It is a 
 considerable mound, divided and gullied into several parts, 
 but not so large as Dhahar. Fara is a low and irregular 
 mound, about a mile long, and nearly as wide. It was 
 not a lofty town, with high walls and towers like Niffer and 
 Bismya, but it must have been a city of much importance. 
 Yokha and Umm-el-Akarib are near together, and interested 
 me very much. The former is long and low, and concealed 
 as one approaches by the moving sand-hills. Akarib is a city 
 of graves, not so large as Yokha, but apparently more impor- 
 tant archaeologically. It appears to have been a sacred burial 
 city, like the modern Kerbela. It was easy to follow with the 
 eye lines of division, which appeared like roads and lots in a 
 cemetery. The higher part of the hill was occupied by a 
 masonry grave, which had been opened and the cist exposed ; 
 and fragments of the contents vases, bones, etc. were ly- 
 ing about. Indeed, we could have picked up from the mound 
 fragments of hundreds of stone bowls or urns. One frag- 
 ment of an alabaster urn indicated that it must have been a 
 foot and a half in diameter. We picked up scores of frag- 
 ments of flint knives and saws. The burials here were in 
 masonry cists, or in large earthenware urns, of which the tops 
 of many were visible, protruding above the surface of the 
 ground. 
 
 On Saturday, January 31, we reached Shatra, a town of 
 perhaps a thousand inhabitants, on the Shatt-el-Hai, though 
 several miles from the location on the maps. We made this 
 our headquarters for several days, while the animals were 
 recruiting, and I was visiting Tello and Zerghul, on the east 
 of the Shatt-el-Hai. Tello is the mound made famous by 
 the discovery there of the archaic statues obtained by M. de 
 
22 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 Sarzec for the Louvre. The tel has two principal elevations, 
 one larger to the south, and a smaller one of nearly equal 
 height to the north. The latter is the palace excavated by 
 M. de Sarzec, consisting of a court and the surrounding 
 rooms, built at various periods. The bricks found were of 
 all ages, from the hand-inscribed bricks of the greatest an- 
 tiquity to the stamped bricks of a Sassanian period, bearing 
 the name of Hadad-nadin. Zerghul is less accessible than 
 Tello, but is a lofty and very promising mound, whose relics 
 point to an equally early period. Its tower gives it promi- 
 nence as seen from a distance, though it is not so large a ruin 
 as another near it called Hibba. 
 
 On Monday, February 9, we left Shatra, following down 
 the right bank of the Shatt-el-Hai, which had already risen to 
 an alarming height, and reached Merkez at night, at the junc- 
 tion of the Shatt-el-Hai and the Euphrates. From here, 
 though troubled by the heavy rains, we crossed the Euphrates 
 and went to Mugheir, the site of the biblical Ur of the Chal- 
 dees. This magnificent mound has been described by Loftus 
 and Taylor, and sufficient excavations have been made to lay 
 open some of the principal buildings, though little more than 
 a beginning has been made. From here I would have gone 
 south to visit Abu Sharein, the Eridu of the Chaldean Flood 
 legend, if the strain on my own health had not made it im- 
 possible. This was the southernmost point we reached ; and 
 from here we went up the west bank of the Euphrates to 
 Hillah, crossing the river to make a visit to the immense 
 mound of Warka, the biblical Erech. The localities in this 
 region which I failed to see were Senkereh and Tel Sifr, both 
 pretty well explored by Loftus and Taylor thirty years ago, 
 and Delehem. The latter must be one of the most important 
 cities of Chaldea. It is surrounded by the Affej marshes, 
 and has never been visited by travellers. I intended to visit 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 23 
 
 it, with the other mounds I have mentioned, on my return to 
 Hillah ; but this proved impossible. 
 
 At Hillah we met Dr. Sterrett, now pretty well recovered, 
 for whom we had telegraphed. He reported much kindness 
 and attention from the English consul, Mr. Plowden, and the 
 English physician, Dr. Bowman. 
 
 Before returning to Baghdad we visited Abu-Habba a second 
 time, and I went alone with a soldier and interpreter to see 
 Tel Ibrahim. This mound, supposed to occupy the site of 
 Cutha, has been slightly explored by Mr. Rassam. The 
 general shape of the mound is that of a horseshoe, with 
 small mounds occupying the open space. I looked carefully 
 for excavations, but there were none of any account. About 
 a dozen spots had been opened, none very large, and none 
 apparently had disclosed any important construction. In one 
 case a brick wall had been found, but not followed far, nor 
 its end reached. One tunnel was dug in for some yards. A 
 broad, deep well has tempted and occupied most of the labor. 
 
 Our visit to Abu-Habba was more satisfactory than the 
 former one. A nearly square enclosure, with a high wall, is 
 divided by two cross walls, leaving a central portion nearly 
 V-shaped. It is only in this central portion that there are 
 any ruins, the other two portions being occupied by cultivated 
 fields. Assyriologists all say that Sippara was a double city, 
 the portions being separated by a canal, and bearing the 
 names of Sippara of Shamash, and Sippara of Anunit, the 
 latter identical with Agade. This is not true of this locality. 
 It is a single undivided mound. It has been quite thor- 
 oughly explored by Mr. Rassam, with great labor and with 
 most satisfactory results. The tablets found there seem to 
 prove conclusively that this is the Sippara of Shamash ; and 
 we must seek elsewhere for the Sippara of Anunit, the larger 
 and older city. 
 
24 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 We returned to Baghdad, and there devoted ourselves 
 again to the study of antiquities, remaining there until 
 March 18, when we left for home, by way of the west bank 
 of the Euphrates River, and the Syrian desert. We visited 
 Akerkuf, almost in sight from Baghdad, not a large mound, 
 and not promising to the spade, except as the corners of the 
 high tower, visible for miles about, probably contain the 
 barrel inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar or Nabonidus. We 
 struck the Euphrates at Sakhlawieh, at the point where the 
 canal of the same name leaves the river. I had come here 
 especially to examine the mound of Sufeira, which, up to 
 the discovery of Abu-Habba, had been supposed to be the 
 site of Sippara ; and I had great hopes of finding in it the 
 older Sippara of Anunit. But it proved to be an inconspicu- 
 ous mound of no importance. I heard from the Mudir of 
 Sakhlawieh that there was, several miles off, a mound called 
 Anbar, much larger than Sufeira; and I took a guide and 
 walked over to see it. It surprised me, indeed, with its 
 height and extent. It is down on none of the late maps 
 which I took with me, though the old maps, drawn from 
 mediaeval Arabic sources, contain it. Though it is well 
 known that there was a large town of the name there in the 
 time of the Caliphates, as no modern traveller has found the 
 name, it had been dropped by Kiepert and other modern 
 geographers from their maps. For size and importance the 
 ruins of Anbar compare well with the very largest cities of 
 Babylonia, Babylon only excepted. It is larger than Abu- 
 Habba, and is of the same prime rank as Niffer and Warka. 
 It is divided by a depression, which perhaps represents an 
 old canal, into two parts, which would seem to be the old 
 and new city, and which, allowing this to be the older Sip- 
 para, as I believe, account for the dual form of the Hebrew 
 Sepharvaim. It is on the Euphrates River, which agrees 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 25 
 
 with the inscriptions which call the Euphrates the river of 
 Sippara. Abu-Habba, and the neighboring quite unimportant 
 Deir, which some have supposed to be Agade, or Sippara of 
 Anunit, are quite too far from the Euphrates ever to have 
 given it a name. The discovery of this city, which repre- 
 sents the Agade, or Sippara of Anunit, the Accad of Genesis 
 x. 10, the Persabora of classical geographers, and the Anbar 
 of Arabic historians, is of the first importance. It is easy 
 to trace the lines of the old palaces or temples, not through 
 any stone walls, but by the depression of the courts, now 
 cultivated wheat-fields. In various places the brick masonry 
 of buildings and walls could easily be traced. I am greatly 
 surprised that Anbar has never before been visited in recent 
 times. 
 
 Thence, crossing the river, we travelled up the west bank 
 of the Euphrates as far as Ed-Deir, a few miles north of the 
 junction of the Khabur and the Euphrates. The interesting 
 points are Hit, the old Issus, the site of the still flowing 
 bitumen fountains and salt springs, where is the shipyard for 
 building boats pitched within and without with pitch ; also 
 Anah, a remarkable village five miles long, all on a single 
 street compressed between the hills and the river, except as a 
 part is on an island in the river. I discovered, a short distance 
 south of Kiamal, the ruins of an important Assyrian town, 
 protected by square walls ; the stones marking the entrance to 
 its gates were still visible. This place is called Tel Jabriyeh, 
 or Shech Jabr, and is of much interest. There is in the 
 northwest corner a considerable tower, and there are exten- 
 sive remains of buildings with walls and stones in sight. But 
 most remarkable is the fact that this is the only place where 
 we have found the unburnt clay walls of a city still standing 
 in part. Elsewhere, as at Nineveh and Babylon, they form 
 a mere ridge, or long hill, enclosing the city. It is not 
 
26 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 necessary to speak of Kan Kalessy and other ruins described 
 by travellers. 
 
 We left the Euphrates at Ed-Deir, Monday, April 6, for 
 Palmyra, by way of Suchne and Erek. We were so fortunate 
 as to find a Roman milestone in position, which gave the 
 name of Erek as Aracha, this being the eighth milestone on 
 the Diocletian, road, Strata Diocletiana. We reached Pal- 
 myra Saturday, April 17, and remained there until the next 
 Thursday, very busily engaged in taking photographs of the 
 ruins, and making copies and taking squeezes of the Greek 
 and Palmyrene inscriptions. The President of the American 
 Archaeological Institute had expressed to Mr. Haynes his 
 desire that a large collection of views of Palmyra might be 
 obtained. We secured nearly a hundred. I took squeezes of 
 nearly all the Palmyrene inscriptions, including the immense 
 stone recently discovered, containing the law of tolls for 
 caravans, on which the wealth of Palmyra depended. I was 
 told that this largest inscription yet discovered, not cunei- 
 form, a bilingual in Greek and Palmyrene, had not been 
 copied by any traveller ; but I found, on reaching Damas- 
 cus, that it had been published some months before in French 
 and German journals. Still I do not regard the time wasted 
 which I devoted to transcribing and translating the Palmyrene 
 portion, while Dr. Sterrett was at work on the Greek. 
 
 After five days in Palmyra, we left, Thursday, April 22, for 
 Damascus, by way of Horns (Emesa), and reached Beirut 
 April 29. After selling our animals there, and obtaining 
 what useful information I could of antiquities which find 
 their way to Beirut, I hastened home by way of Alexandria, 
 Paris, and London, stopping only at Paris a few days to 
 meet with Dr. Oppert, and Messieurs Menant, de Clercq, and 
 Perrot, and other French scholars and collectors ; and at 
 London, waiting for the freight sent around by water, and 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 27 
 
 consulting with Dr. Birch, Mr. Pinches, and the other scholars 
 of the Museum. I reached home June 20, 1885. 
 
 What are the prospects for hopeful exploration and exca- 
 vation ? We gave our most careful attention to this matter. 
 Wherever we went we made all possible geographical and 
 archaeological observations, and took photographs ; but our 
 special object was to open the way for further work in the 
 future. I am convinced that in Babylonia the tithe has not 
 yet been done. The great excavations of the past have been 
 in the north, in Assyria, about Nineveh. There enough 
 has been done to fill up very much of the outlines and sub- 
 stance of the history of the great Assyrian Empire. There 
 Botta and Place and Layard have done their work, the monu- 
 ments of which are the glory of the British Museum and the 
 Louvre. Coming now south to the territory of the earlier and 
 later Babylonian empires, the territory where Asiatic civil- 
 ization, if not that of humanity, had its origin, we find that 
 much less thorough investigations have been made. Here 
 the workers have been Oppert, with his scientific expedition ; 
 Rawlinson, Loftus, and Taylor, of whom the latest did his 
 work nearly forty years ago ; and more recently Mr. Rassam 
 and M. de Sarzec. But their labor has scarcely skimmed the 
 surface. The chief digging at Babylon has been the desul- 
 tory picking of Arabs among graves, or excavating for bricks. 
 Rawlinson tore down the corners of Nebuchadnezzar's tower 
 of Babel at Borsippa, for the great king's inscribed barrels, 
 and found them. Oppert worked over the architectural plan 
 of the same building. Taylor and Loftus began the exca- 
 vation of several important ruins in Southern Babylonia, 
 Warka and Abu Sharein and Mugheir and Senkereh and Tel 
 Sifr, and obtained a few coffins and tablets of great interest 
 or antiquity. Within ten years Rassam has explored temples 
 
28 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 at Abu-Habba and Birs Nimrud, and found a magnificent 
 number of tablets ; and De Sarzec, in the extreme south, has 
 dug up, with the finest results, an ordinary mound at Tello. 
 But at Babylon nothing scientific has yet been done. Perhaps 
 the vastness of the remains, to which the clew has hardly been 
 found, discourages workers. Only Birs Nimrud (the old Bor- 
 sippa), Abu-Habba, and Tello have been explored with any 
 thoroughness. The great cities of the region were Babylon, 
 Nipur, Sippara, and Erech ; and not one of them has been 
 more than touched, while Nipur and old Sippara are yet 
 virgin to the explorer's spade. The same is true of numer- 
 ous other scarcely secondary sites, such as Delehem, Bismya, 
 Dhahar, Hammam, Yokha, Umm-el-Akarib, Zerghul, and a 
 score of others which I could mention. Especially would I 
 call attention to the immense ruins of Sippara, at Anbar, 
 which, as I have said, is not down on the latest maps of the 
 region. It is most accessible, close to the Euphrates River, 
 and with a sufficient population adjacent to furnish workmen. 
 Another most promising site is Umm-el-Akarib, which ap- 
 pears to have been a city of sepulture from the most ancient 
 times. This mound also is not down on the maps, and it 
 ought to be carefully explored. I mention these two only 
 among a score which invite especial study. 
 
 The oldest cities of Babylonia, if not of the world, according 
 to the wonderful geographical table of Genesis x., are the four 
 which were the beginning of the kingdom of Nimrod. They 
 were Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of 
 Shinar. These are the ones most frequently mentioned to- 
 gether in the Babylonian inscriptions as the greatest and most 
 ancient seats of the gods. They were all visited ; and one of 
 them, Accad, also known as Agade, and the Sippara of Anunit, 
 was discovered by the Wolfe Expedition. They are all enor- 
 mous mounds, the largest in the East; and they cover the 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 29 
 
 history and the art and the mythology of the beginnings of 
 social and religious development. Of the four only Babylon 
 has been very much explored ; and there the chief digging has 
 been at the northern mound of Babil, which is little more than 
 a solid mass of brick. The promising parts of the city are at 
 Jimjimeh and Kasr, chiefly explored by little parties of digging 
 Arabs. Erech, now Warka, has been partly opened by Loftus 
 and Taylor ; but there only a beginning has been made. Cal- 
 neh is Niffer; and there nothing has been done. It is a most 
 promising site of a most famous city. The last of the four 
 cities, Accad, is, as I have said, the present Anbar, quite lost 
 until found by us ; and though the old tale of Berosus relates 
 that Noah came back and dug up the records of the learning 
 of the antediluvian world which he had buried here before the 
 flood, yet it cannot but be full of treasure. Dr. Schliemann 
 has just published, in a noble volume, the results of his exten- 
 sive diggings at the old city of Tiryns. One who knows the 
 treasures of the East cannot look over his pictures of the 
 walls and idols and pottery fragments there found, and which 
 are so generously figured, without thinking that what was 
 found there, however much it explains or illustrates ques- 
 tions of architecture and art, is not the hundredth or the 
 thousandth part of what could be expected if we could under- 
 take a similar careful exploration of Niffer or Anbar. I trust 
 that the exploration of these sites, to which no other country 
 has as yet any prior right, may fall to America. 
 
 Besides excavation we found that an immense amount of 
 geographical work yet remains to be done. Something of 
 value has been done by officers in the service of the British 
 government, especially towards the survey of the Tigris and 
 Euphrates rivers. To Jones, Chesney, Collingwood, Selby, 
 and Bewsher, we owe a great debt for their labors. The dis- 
 trict between the two rivers reaching from a little north of 
 
30 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 Baghdad as far south as Niffer has been so carefully mapped 
 by Selby and Bewsher that scarce a small mound is unre- 
 corded. But this is all. From Anbar and the Sakhlawieh 
 Canal north there are no maps, and south from Niffer none. 
 There are the remains of scores, if not hundreds, of old cities, 
 between the two rivers and on their outer banks, whose names 
 are in no explorer's list. Some of these we found, as I have 
 said, to be of great extent and importance. 
 
 Perhaps even more necessary, even, is the careful explora- 
 tion of the courses of the old chief canals, which were so large 
 as to bear the name of rivers, carrying just such a commerce 
 as did the rivers, and determining the sites of cities as con- 
 siderable as did the Tigris and Euphrates. The banks of old 
 canals form the most conspicuous features of the scenery 
 of Babylonia. We followed, for example, from El-Ohemir to 
 Niffer, the line of that old and immense canal whose bed, 
 though now almost level with the country about, and looking 
 more like an old road whose sides are strewn with pottery and 
 brick, still bears the name of river, the Shatt-el-Nil, and which 
 Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch believes to have been one of the four 
 rivers of Eden. But below Niffer its course has not been fol- 
 lowed, although we heard of it frequently in answer to our 
 inquiries. I wished very much that I could do this, but it 
 was impossible with the time at our disposal. Following the 
 bed of old canals is possibly the best way to identify the sites 
 of old cities. The Babylonian records contain the mention 
 of numbers of these old chief canals made or repaired by 
 the kings as works of piety and mercy. A map of these an- 
 cient canals is a matter of great importance. Wherever we 
 went, according to our opportunities, we made such geograph- 
 ical notes, and took careful bearings of the different mounds, 
 for the filling up and correction of existing maps ; but this is 
 a small beginning. 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 31 
 
 It is now proper that I should report what I was able to do 
 in obtaining, or opening the way for obtaining, for America 
 the monuments of Babylonian literature and art. It is the 
 present policy of Turkey absolutely to forbid all excavation 
 of antiquities, whether by natives or foreigners. I have told 
 how this difficulty met me at the start, and almost prevented 
 my obtaining permission to make any explorations. I was 
 under obligation to do no digging. That was strictly forbid- 
 den in my letters from the Turkish Minister of the Interior, 
 addressed to the governors of the Vilayats. It was equally 
 true that I had neither time nor money to do any digging. 
 There were many places where I much wished to remain a 
 week and excavate, but that was impossible. We strictly 
 obeyed the directions of the Turkish government on this sub- 
 ject. But it was quite within my privilege to find out what 
 antiquities are being found and offered for sale. This I did. 
 I put myself in communication with every man I could hear 
 of who dealt in antiquities, Christian, Jew, or Moslem. 
 Hillah, as being close to Babylon, and Baghdad, as the river 
 port of Hillah and of all Babylonia, are the greatest centres for 
 obtaining antiquities in Asia, if not in the world. Although 
 the trade is contraband, considerable quantities of tablets, 
 cylinders, and other larger objects are constantly being ex- 
 ported from Baghdad to London. In the latter city I exam- 
 ined several different consignments, in the hands of agents 
 there ; and I' have brought home an excellent collection of 
 small engraved and inscribed objects in gold, chalcedony, lapis 
 lazuli, and clay, burnt and unburnt. Among the more valu- 
 able of these are a number of complete historical barrel 
 cylinders, or parts of them, belonging to Nebuchadnezzar, 
 Nabonidus, and other kings, and perhaps a hundred complete 
 contract and other tablets, a few of a period perhaps fifteen 
 hundred years before Christ, but mostly of the period ranging 
 
32 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 
 
 from Nebuchadnezzar to Antiochus Epiphanes. They form 
 an excellent beginning for a collection, superior to any yet 
 obtained for this country; and although it was necessary 
 to purchase them with other funds than those provided for 
 the expedition, it is my desire, if such be also your wish, that 
 they shall be placed, at their first cost, in the Metropolitan 
 Museum. 
 
 The question will be asked, How far is it now possible to 
 carry on explorations and make excavations and collect the 
 ancient monuments in Babylonia ? In the way of excava- 
 tions stands at present the Turkish government. To over- 
 come that difficulty may be a matter of time, or it may be 
 only a matter of diplomacy. I believe it can be conquered 
 in some way. The proposition that our own government 
 shall unite with England, Germany, and France, in obtaining 
 concessions for excavations, is well worth considering. Very 
 possibly we can do quite as well alone. If the necessary 
 money can be raised, it would be better to attempt it alone 
 than to be delayed by long negotiations with four govern- 
 ments. Very possibly a satisfactory arrangement might be 
 made, by which nominally the Turkish government might 
 conduct the excavations, an American party being employed 
 for the purpose. Further, the frequent changes taking place 
 in the Turkish government leave the way open for changes of 
 policy, if wisely sought. 
 
 But an immense amount of geographical and other work 
 can be done without excavations. The importance of such 
 work, directed by good archaeologists and engineers, cannot 
 be over-estimated. What this work is, has been sufficiently 
 indicated above. 
 
 Furthermore, a fine collection of Assyrian and Babylonian 
 antiquities can be made without waiting for a firman to exca- 
 vate. As I have said, a great number of most important 
 
THE WOLFE EXPEDITION TO BABYLONIA. 33 
 
 objects are constantly turning up, through the more or less 
 intelligent digging of natives, who have some skill in the 
 work. Remember that all Mr. Rassam's collections and exca- 
 vations were made by natives. He is himself a native ; and 
 not an Englishman had anything to do with the work done 
 by him in Abu-Habba and elsewhere. The men who con- 
 ducted all that digging live now in Baghdad and the neigh- 
 borhood, and know how antiquities are to be found. Every 
 year the British Museum purchases some thousands of dollars 
 worth of tablets, etc. As I have said, I saw in London fine 
 lots of such objects, in the hands of London agents of parties 
 in Mesopotamia, the purchase of which may require a year's 
 chaffering ; and I heard of other collections that would soon 
 be in the market. It is not too late for America to compete 
 with Europe for these collections, which do so much to encour- 
 age and develop the scholarship of a country. Where there 
 is material that demands original work, original work will be 
 done. I hardly need do more than suggest how advantageous 
 it would be for American scholarship if we might have in 
 Baghdad a permanent resident who would make it his busi- 
 ness to attend to our interests in archaeological matters. An 
 American consul there, intelligently selected, might do very 
 much. For this reason De Sarzec, after his explorations at 
 Tello, was promoted from Bussora to Baghdad, where he is now 
 the French consul-general. I am fully convinced that there 
 is a great future opening to us in this most hopeful and fruit- 
 ful branch of archaeological study, if we will only follow up 
 the lead given us by the generosity and public spirit of 
 Miss Wolfe. 
 
 WILLIAM HAYES WARD. 
 
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