OF HISTORIC INTEREST.

Shannon News, 2 October 1923, Page 3

OF HISTORIC INTEREST.

— Great literary interest .attaches to the discovery connected with the rainous. proclamation of Nebuchadnezzar lor refusing to obey which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were put into the burning' fiery furnace. Mr C. Leonard Woolley, director of the expedition sent out to Ur of the Chaldees by the British Museum and the University Museum, Philadelphia, ' that the temple of the Moon God proved to be of the. greatest interest. It was founded at a very earl) date, probably in the fourth millennium; 8.C., and rebuilt or repaired bv a series of kings who have left theii records either ‘ stamped on its bricks or inscribed on the stone hinge blocks in which its doors turned. Up to the late Babylonian period the old building preserved consistently its origin al-forni; Nebuciiadnzzar (600 8.G.) remodelled it, apparently to suit £ change of ritual whereby public ser vices took the place of or were adder to the private rite s 'oi former days Such a change would be consistem with the story of the king’s proclama tion recorded in the Bible. The site oi the Ur of the Chaldees proved un expectedly rich in objects. ,These include many _ inscribed. clay tablets mostly business documents covering the period oi' the Third Dynasty (fron: 2300 B.C. to 2000. 8.C.), jewellery o: the time of Nebuchadnezzar and o: the Persians, weapons and pottery A series of bricks -bearing Roy a stamps which cover the whole life o; the city from the second half of the third millennium: to the sixth centurj he love Christ was also found. These objects, adds Mr Woolley, will fonr a special exhibition .at the Britisl Museum pending their distribuitior among Great Britain, Philadelphia and tire Iraq Government.