EARTH GODDESS TEMPLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1927, Page 8

EARTH GODDESS TEMPLE

AFTER FIFTY CENTURIES. The magnificent temple of the Earth Goddess of Harsagklemma, built some 5000 years ago by the Sumerians and restored about 2500 years later by Nabonidus, king of Babylon, has been completely cleared by the Field Mu-seum-Oxford University joint expedition to Mesopotamia, according to a report received recently by D. C. Davies, director of the Field Museum, from L. C. Watelin, in charge of the excavation work. Nabonidus was the father of Belshazzar, the last king of Babylon who “saw the handwriting on the wall” while in the midst of a great feast, the story of which appears in the Book of Daniel. The temple was dug up from the colossal ruins marking the site of what was known as Harsagklemma, the seat of the earliest Sumerian kings, says the “San Francisco Examiner.” These ruins, some five miles long, are in eastern Kish, Harsagklemma is repeatedly mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions as a twin city of Kish. Mr Watelin made a number of valuable finds which may help throw light on the civilisation of the dim past. Included in his shipment of objects to the Field Museum are two Sumerian statuettes, made of alabaster, one of them very old, and six bricks which formed the foundation box under the altar in the temple. In the box he found fragments of a statuette of unbaked earth. On one of the pieces is the face of a god holding a thin blade of gold. In the wall back of the box was found some gold beads and stone bead necklaces. These and other objects are now on the way to the museum. Assyriologists estimate that the temple was built about 3000 B.C. This and other temples and structures of Harsagklemma suffered in the centuries of warfare that followed between the Semites and Sumerians. It is indicated that the temple of the Earth Goddess was rebuilt several times, the last builder being Nabonidus, who made his restoration in the sixth century B.C. Nabonidus constructed it in the prevailing Babylonian architectural motif. In December of 1925 the # Field Museum-Oxford University expedition started work on the site, and this year completed the task of clearing the remains of the temple from the dust of the centuries. Parts of the structure are in an excellent state of preservation, with walls still standing 20 to 25 feet high. From what is known according to Babylonian temples, this structure appears to be one of the finest and best preserved specimens in Mesopotamia, the report states. In the entrance to an inner chapel the excavators found small deposits of cuneiform tablets, but the brick boxes in which Nabonidus placed his foundation deposits at the various entrance gates were found to z have been looted by invading ‘armies. The building was approximately 100 feet square, its outer walls being decorated with the T-shaped false pillar decoration so characteristic of Babylonian architecture. Another familiar characteristic of this school of architecture is found in the huge buttresses flanking the six great gates of the temple. There is a huge court and central shrine, flanked by chapels and 27 chambers, the latter being cleared only after the expenditure of immense labour, due to the accumulation of debris over a period of many centuries.