THE OLDEST CITY IN THE WORLD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 4 May 1931, Page 2

THE OLDEST CITY IN THE WORLD

Below the great temple which Nebuchadnezzer built at Kish, the 12ft thick walls of another huge temple have been discovered. Kish, which is said to bo the oldest city in the world, i 3 in Irak, eight miles east of Babylon, and tho Oxford University Field Museum’s expedition has been working on the site yir Charles Marston, who has received the first report from the expedition, stat ed that tho mouth of a huge temple had been cleared which was built underneath the'great Neo-Babylonian temple, ilt was probably tho Temple of Aruru, and must have been a ruin long before Nebuchadnezzar was king. The _ great north-west gate of the temple built by Nebuchadnezzar had also been pierced, and workmen have been trenching deeply into the great temple court. In this area the expedition found inscribed tablets of tho age of Sargon—about the 28th century 8.0. Various historical inscriptions of tho early Sumerian period have also been discovered When some of tho tablets were examined by tho director of the expedition, lie came to the conclusion that the long-lost capital of Agado, founded by Sargon, must bo somewhere near Kish, and might well be within the ruins of Kish itself. Twenty-fivo feet below tho level the the desert tombs of the early Sumerian period have been found. Two of them contained chariots with oxen and drivers siifiilar to those discovered a little way to the north.