The discovery of ancient Nippur and its Sumerian heritage owes much to the energy, determination and leadership of John P. Peters (1852-1921) who launched the modern excavations of Nufar, ancient Nippur in 1888. See what he looked like (a 225 KB GIF image). After stirring up interest in an American archaeological expedition to Mesopotamia and securing funding, he directed the first two seasons of the Nippur excavations.
The early excavations at Nippur were carried out under difficult conditions in more ways than one. Considerable political in-fighting among the staff continued throughout the period. The archaeologists, Peters and Haynes, were both much maligned by Hilprecht the epigrapher (the expert on the written material that was uncovered). Eventually Hilprecht lost his place in disgrace, but some secondary works on the history of archaeology still repeat his unfair attacks on the work of Professor Peters.
Several interesting passages from Peters' description of the work at Nippur are reproduced here. Minor corrections and updates have been inserted in brackets. Enlil, the bestower of kingship, was the chief god worshipped at Nippur during the third and second millennia B.C. In the 1890's, Peters and others did not yet realize that the designation Bel belonged to a later period. Take a look at these excerpts:
These excerpts are taken from John Punnett Peters, Nippur or Explorations and Adventures on the Euphrates: The Narrative of the University of Pennsylvania Expedition to Babylonia in the Years 1888-1890, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1897, Volume II.
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