John Peters on the Situation of Nippur

[p. 105] Nufar is situated in the alluvial clay region formed by the deposits of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and now known by the name of Irak, a little north of the thirty-second parallel of north latitude, at the northeastern edge of the Affech marshes, which are formed by the overflow of the latter river. It is in the Jezireh, or island, between the two rivers, and lies about one hundred miles east of south from Baghdad. The country is absolutely flat, but to the northwest of Nufar there is a region of shifting sand dunes; while from the summit of the mounds themselves a few ruin heaps are visible in various directions, [p.106] and on a clear day in winter one may see the snow glistening on the Persian mountains one hundred miles to the northeast.

The mounds of Nufar are among the most extensive in all Irak, rivaling in this respect the famous ruins of Babylon. In outward appearance, like most of the ruins of the country, they are merely a group of clay hills, which might be mistaken for a natural formation, were it not for the fragments of brick, pottery, and glass with which the surface is so thickly strewn. The main mass of hills or mounds is about a mile in circumference, but about these again there is a slightly raised surface strewn with pottery fragments extending to a great distance and shading off imperceptibly into the plain, and small outlying mounds occur at the distance of a couple of miles from the main group. The latter represents the ancient city within the walls. This is divided into two almost equal parts by a deep depression, called by the natives Shatt-en-Nil, or canal of the Nil, running through the mounds from northwest to southeast, and representing an ancient ship canal, which left the Euphrates at Babylon, about sixty miles to the northwest, and on which lay some of the most important cities of the country.

The highest mound in the group, and the only one with an individual name, Bint-el-Amir, or Prince's Daughter, lies on the northeastern side of the canal. This was a conical, sharp hill, ninety-four feet above the actual plain level, by Sir Henry Rawlinson's measurements, and twenty-four metres, or about seventy-eight feet above the present level of the canal-bed according to the measurements of Mr. Field, our engineer. Several points on the southwestern side of the canal reach an almost equal altitude, and the average height of the mounds may be given as forty-five feet above the level of the canal-bed.

It will be seen, therefore, that the excavation of the ancient city of Nippur was no mean task. The work was complicated, moreover, by the fact that this mass of [p. 107] earth represented the accumulations of an almost incredibly long period, of which we knew next to nothing. Bricks discovered by Loftus proved that the temple of Bel [Enlil] had been built by Ur-Gur [now read as Ur-Nammu], king of Ur, some time between 2700 and 3000 B.C. [now dated to 2112-2095 B.C.], and notices in Arab writers showed, as Sir Henry Rawlinson had pointed out, that it was inhabited and the seat of a Christian bishopric as late as the twelfth century A.D. The Jewish Talmud, on what grounds is not known, assigned to it especial importance, identifying it with the ancient city of Calneh, mentioned in the famous tenth chapter of Genesis. Bricks found at Ur, Larsa, and other cities of the South, mention it, generally before those cities, showing its importance throughout the whole of the third thousand B.C. Late Assyrian records also speak of it with reverence as the original seat of the worship of the great Bel. Here was a period of at least four thousand years to be explored, and this was the sum of the knowledge which we had to guide us.