The majority of the houses at Abû Hatab appear to have been destroyed by fire, and, in view of the complete absence of later remains, the tablets scattered on their floors indicate the period of its latest settlement. It thus represents a well-defined epoch, later than that of the mounds at Fâra, and most valuable for comparison with them. At neither Fâra nor Abû Hatab were the remains of any important building or temple disclosed, but the graves and houses of the common people have furnished information of even greater value for the archaeologist and historian. Another mound which should provide further material for the study of this earliest period is Bismâya, the site of the city at Adab, at which excavations were begun on December 25, 1903 by the University of Chicago and continued during the following year.[23] The mound of Hêtime to the west of Fâra, may, to judge from the square bricks and fragments of pot-burials that are found there, date from about the same period as Abû Hatab. But it is of small extent and height, the greater part being merely six or seven feet above the plain, while its two central mounds rise to a height of less than fourteen feet. Such are the principal early Sumerian mounds in the region of the Shatt el-Kâr and the Shatt el-Hai. Other mounds in the same neighbourhood may well prove to be of equally early dates; but it should be noted that some of these do not cover Sumerian cities, but represent far later periods of occupation. The character of the extensive mound of Jidr to the east of Fâra and Abû Hatab is doubtful; but the use of lime-mortar in such remains as are visible upon the surface indicates a late epoch. A number of smaller tells may be definitely regarded as representing a settlement in this district during Sassanian times. Such are Dubâ'i, which, with two others, lies to the south of Fâra, and Bint el-Mderre to the east; to the same period may be assigned Menêdir, which lies to the north-east, beyond Deke, the nearest village to Fâra. This last mound, little more than a hundred yards long, covers the site of a burial-place; it has been completely burrowed through by the Arabs in their search for antiquities, and is now covered with fragments of sarcophagi. The mounds of Mjelli and Abû Khuwâsîj to the west of Fâra are probably still later, and belong to the Arab period.