THE FIRST BRICK EVER USED.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1924, Page 4

THE FIRST BRICK EVER USED.

5,100 YEARS AGO. BAGHDAD, Eeh. 10. Miss Gertrude Bell, known for her travels in Mesopotamia and for hooks of her adventurous journeys, is now tlie Honorary Director for Antiquities in Iraq, in "addition to her official position of Oriental secretary to the High Commissioner, Sir Henry Dobbs. She Ims recently returned from a tour around Kish, Warka, Suiikarn, anti Ur. A great deal of nefarious secret traffic is going on in antiquities

purloined from the ruins ot ancient cities in Mesopotamia and the cause of science is sustaining severe losses through the depredations ol unauthorised Arab' diggers, who, in the course of their treasure seeking, do irreparable damage to the ancient sites. - Miss Bell lias written a report - on her tour, in which she states— I visited the excavations at Kish on January lit and stayed there tur tlie night. The temple to the east of the big y.igiirrul (staged tower) of Uhaimir is being gardually cleared. East of the old river bed are 'low city mounds, in one of which, immediately to the south-west of Inglmra mound, an excavation of the highest interest is being conducted. The nature of the building is yet to he revealed ; it has the appearance of a palace or public building rathcr than a temple; indeed, it can scarcely he a sanctuary, for on the day of our arrival two burials had been discovered below the pavement, one of a man, with a well-preserved skull, _ the other of a little gill wearing silver ornaments. The building is of great antiquity. Ft is composed of plano-convex bricks of two periods, the earlier being small Gmd lumpish, the later larger and thinner -with less convexity. I’rofessur Langdou believes the later . brick to have been used for about 400 years, roughly from 2800 n.c. to 0200 li.c. The earlier, lie thinks, is the first brick of any bind ,to bare been employed, and he dates iL from 0200 n.c. back to nil. In the course of excavating this building a remarkable inlaid plaque has been discovered, the figures bing typically fsumerian. It hears the name of a hitherto unknown “King of Kish” and proves that the earliest rulers of the city were Sumerian, not Semitic.

Professor Lungdon has also found on" tii'is site fragments of figures carved in mother of pearl which must have formed part of another inlaid plaque. Here 1 again the figures are typically Sumerian. The scene represented would appear to he that of a seated king with a temple servant standing below him, and wives and maidens' advancing with outstretched arm towards him.

At Warka I found a large party of men, women, and children engaged in desultory excavation. They cam* from Hasynh, about a inile to the west oi' the mound. A considerable amount of harm is undoubtedly being done. ~ Before leaving I rode out to lJnsyah. In a small shop there is a portion of a Parthian slipper coffin, tho property of a man called Husain. v Vl,out. two-thirds of the lower portion remains in good preservation.