the reign of Nabopolasser, Nebuchadrezzar, Nabonidus, and even Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius. Shortly after this the first expedition was brought to a close. [Illustration in text, previous page: Plan of Nineveh (Nippur) A. Palace of Sennacherib. B. Palace of Assur-bani-pal. _By permission of the Director of the British Museum._] In the second expedition, also undertaken at Nippur, Dr Peters decided to dispense with the services of Messrs Hilprecht and Field, the expert Assyriologists who had been dispatched to advise him professionally. Himself not an Assyriologist, he laboured at a disadvantage without the assistance of these experts. The work of the first expedition had concentrated at three conspicuous points--the temple, the 'tablet' hill which had yielded such good results, and the 'Court of Columns.' The principal objective was now the conical hill of Bint-el-Amir, containing the zikkurat and temple of Bel. Peters regarded the temple as having been built by a king "not far removed from Nebuchadrezzar in time," but many of his inferences have been traversed by Hilprecht. "In his endeavour to reach the older remains before the more recent strata had been investigated in the least adequately, Peters broke through the outer casing of the zikkurat, built of 'immense blocks of adobe,' in a cavity of which he discovered a well-preserved goose egg, and perceived that there was an older stage-tower of quite a different form and much smaller dimensions enclosed within the other. By means of a diagonal trench cut through its centre, he ascertained its height and characteristic features down to the level of Ur-Gur, and came to the conclusion (which, however, did not prove correct) that the zikkurat of this ancient monarch was the earliest erected at Nippur. 'Wells and similar shafts were sunk at other points of the temple,' especially at the northern and western corners, where he reached original constructions of Ashurbanapal (668-626 B.C.) and Ur-Gur (about 2700 B.C.), and discovered scattered bricks ... 'showing that many kings of many ages had honoured the temple of Bel at Nippur.'"[6] The Business Quarter of Nippur The excavators soon concluded that they had hit upon the business quarter of Nippur, basing their belief upon the commercial character of the tablets found, the large number of day labels pierced for attachment to sacks and jars, books of entry in clay, and weights and measures. So much damage had been done to the buildings while excavating, however that the appearance and plan of any of the Babylonian business houses and warehouses could not be arrived at. In August 1893 Haynes commenced a search for the original bed and embankment of the river Chebar, which he came upon at a depth of twenty feet from the surface. In the dried-up bed of the river or canal he found a round terra-cotta fountain in three fragments, decorated with birds from whose mouths the water passed. The Fourth Campaign