"In the summer of 1888, the University of Pennsylvania fully equipped and sent out the first American expedition to the northern half of the plains of Babylonia to effect a thorough exploration of the ruins of Nippur—the modern Niffer, or, more correctly, Nuffar—on the border of the unwholesome swamps of the Affej, and to undertake extensive excavations. A few intelligent citizens of Philadelphia had met in the house of Ex-Provost Dr. William Pepper, and formed 'The Babylonian Exploration Fund,' a short time before this with the purpose of effecting a systematic exploration of ancient Babylonia. What science owes to this unselfish undertaking can be adequately estimated only by posterity. … Two professors, Peters and Hilprecht, were entrusted with the management of the expedition, Dr. Peters as director, and Dr. Hilprecht as Assyriologist." _H. V. Hilprecht, editor, Recent Research in Bible Lands, page 47._ {13} Professor Hilprecht, who conducts for the "Sunday School Times" a most interesting and important department, in which the proceedings and principal results of archæological exploration in Bible Lands have been currently chronicled during several years past, gave, in that journal of December I, 1900, the following description of the scene and the historical importance of the ruins in which the excavations above mentioned have been carried on: "Nuffar is the modern Arabic name of an old Babylonian ruin situated about half-way between the Euphrates and Tigris, at the northeastern boundary of the great Affej swamps, which are formed by the regular annual inundations of the Euphrates. In a straight line, it is nearly eighty miles to the southeast from Baghdad. A large canal, now dry, and often for miles entirely filled with rubbish and sand, divides the ruins into two almost equal parts. On an average about fifty or sixty feet high, these ruins are torn up by frequent gulleys and furrows into a number of spurs and ridges, from the distance not unlike a rugged mountain range on the bank of the upper Tigris. In the Babylonian language, the city buried here was called Nippur. According to Jewish tradition, strongly supported by arguments drawn from cuneiform texts and archaeological objects found at the ruins themselves, Nippur was identical with the Biblical Calneh, mentioned in Genesis 10: 10, as one of the four great cities of the kingdom of Nimrod. It was therefore natural that the public in general should take a warm interest in our excavations at Nuffar. This interest grew considerably in religious circles when, a few years ago, I announced my discovery of the name of the 'river Chebar' in two cuneiform texts from the archives of Nippur. It became then evident that this 'river Chebar,' which hitherto could not be located, was