tower, may still be seen rising from
the soil, the temple of Nabu lying at a lower level below the steep
slope of the mound, which is mainly made up of debris from the
ziggurat. Dr. Andrae has recently left Babylonia for Assyria, where
his excavations at Sher-ghat, the site of the ancient Assyrian city of
Ashur, are confidently expected to throw considerable light on the early
history of that country and the customs of the people, and already he
has made numerous finds of considerable interest.

[Illustration: 167.jpg THE PRINCIPAL MOUND OF BIRS NIMRUD, WHICH MARKS
THE SITE OP THE ANCIENT CITY OP BORSIPPA.]

Since the early spring of 1903 excavations have been conducted at
Kuyunjik, the site of the city of Nineveh, by Messrs. L. W. King and R.
C. Thompson on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, and have
resulted in the discovery of many early remains in the lower strata of
the mound, in addition to the finding of new portions of the two palaces
already known and partly excavated, the identification of a third
palace, and the finding of an ancient temple dedicated to Nabu, whose
existence had already been inferred from a study of the Assyrian
inscriptions.* All these diggings at Babylon, at Ashur, and at Nineveh
throw more light upon the history of the country during the Assyrian and
Neo-Babylonian periods, and will be referred to later in the volume.

* It may be noted that excavations are also being actively
carried on in Palestine at the present time. Mr. Macalister
has for some years been working for the Palestine
Exploration Fund at Gezer; Dr. Schumacher is digging at
Megiddo for the German Palestine Society; and Prof. Sellin
is at present excavating at Taanach (Ta'annak) and will
shortly start work at Dothan. Good work on remains of later
historical periods is also being carried on under the
auspices of the Deutsch-Orient Gesellschaft at Ba'albek and
in Galilee. It would be tempting to include here a summary
of the very interesting results that have recently been
achieved in this fruitful field of archaeological research,
for it is true that these excavations may strictly be said
to bear on the history of a portion of Western Asia. But the
problems which they raise would more naturally be discussed
in a work dealing with recent excavation and research in
relation to the Bible, and to have summarized them
adequatel