Gold has not been found as frequently as one could wish in the course of Babylonian and Assyrian excavations; doubtless this is in part due to the depredations of booty-hunters, but it is nevertheless an indication that it was only used for exceptional purposes as is indeed the case with us to-day. It was regularly used for commercial transactions; a good example of its use in this connection is afforded by a tablet belonging to the Kassite period, the text of which is to be found in Vol. XIV (40) of the University of Pennsylvania’s publication.[116] A woman agrees to adopt a girl, tend her during life, and after death offer libations of water for the repose of her soul, and as consideration she receives the sum of seven shekels of gold. One of the earliest pieces of gold actually discovered in Babylonia is the narrow strip inscribed with the name of Narâm-Sin of Agade, to which we have already had occasion to allude (cf. p. 103). But gold was also employed for decorative purposes; at Abû Shahrein (Eridu) for example, Taylor found various fragments of gold on the base of the second storey of the ziggurat,—apparently the remains of the ornamentation of the sanctuary which doubtless crowned the tower; gold-headed nails and fragments of gold leaf were also found on the same site. In the course of the recent excavations at Ashur, a representation of lightning in gold, about a foot and a half in length, which doubtless was once in the grasp of the hand of a life-size statue of Adad, the storm-god, was brought to light. The handle was made of wood, but was covered with a thin sheath of pure gold. The three-pronged end, of which only two remain, was welded to this covering. The whole is said to weigh about 290 grains, 250 of which represent the weight of the gold. At Babylon, the most famous of all the cities in the Euphrates valley, gold was employed with great prodigality. As early as the first dynasty of Babylon it was used in the service of the gods, and Sumu-la-ilu, the second king of this dynasty, built a throne of gold and silver for the great lord Marduk,[117] while the statues of the gods themselves were frequently made wholly or in part of pure gold; thus for example Nabû-aplu-iddina, king of Babylon _circ._ 870 B.C., tells us that he carefully prepared the image of Shamash, the Sun-god, with pure gold and lapis lazuli, while the famous statue of Marduk of Babylon would also appear to have been made of pure gold.