The Field Museum-Oxford University expedition excavating the ruins of Kish has discovered what is believed to be the palace of the first Kings of Babylon. according to word received by D.C. Devies director of the museum, from Prof. S. Langdon, Assyriologist, head of the expedition.
Inasmuch as the palace has never been built over, it proved to be the oldest architectural structure ever found in the Near East, according to Langdon. It is in a remarkable state of preservation.
The vast structure was built of the earliest known type of brick. After uncovering the cuter walls the excavators found a magnificent brick stairway, flanked by a great wall and built into alcoves.
Near it was an equally imposing colonnade of brick pillars, running east and west before the throne room. Inscriptions showed that these formed the front of a court wherein the king or wise men of the palace decided disputes and legal eases.
Around the throne room itself were many exquisitely worked plaques arranged in a great frieze, depicting expeditions of the first Kings to subdue foreign cities. They showed in clear detail the dress and laces of the kings, who are now conclusively proven to have been not Semites, but Sumerians, Langdon asserted.
Both kings and prisoners had round heads, and their lips and cheeks were shaven. The axis of the eye, moreover, was outward and downward, instead of horizontal as in the Senates.
Other plaques depicted cattle being brought home and milked. The quality of the inlaying and engraving revealed the Sumerians as masters of those arts.
Near the throne itself was found the earliest bit of pictograph writing ever discovered, which was spoken of in earlier reports from Langdon. It contained drawings of heads and hands and, in effect, made up a list of slaves in the palace, with notes by scribes about those who were absent.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
