. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 259 all the space was occupied by a series of long-service chambers which were used either as store-rooms or for other purposes connected with the temple. Several times in the course of its history E-nun-makh had been destroyed, and as often rebuilt from the ground up, and still more often had kings and rulers of Ur patched and repaired the venerable shrine ; but all had been careful to adhere to its original ground-plan, using what remained of the old walls as foundations for what had to be built afresh ; one or other might make some addition to the temple, inc
. Discovery. Science. DISCOVERY 259 all the space was occupied by a series of long-service chambers which were used either as store-rooms or for other purposes connected with the temple. Several times in the course of its history E-nun-makh had been destroyed, and as often rebuilt from the ground up, and still more often had kings and rulers of Ur patched and repaired the venerable shrine ; but all had been careful to adhere to its original ground-plan, using what remained of the old walls as foundations for what had to be built afresh ; one or other might make some addition to the temple, increasing its area, but none ventured to alter the type which his prede- cessors had laid down once and for all. The first royal builder whose name is recorded on the bricks is Ur-Nammu, but the temple had been razed and re- built at least three times before he came to the throne in about 2300 ; we have objects dedicated in it by Rimush, who was king of Agade about 2650 , but that date would hardly take us back through more than one period of reconstruction ; the walls of lerye pisce (stamped-down earth) which we found underlying the earliest mud-brick structure may well belong to the fourth millennium before Christ. The Third Dynasty was brought to an inglorious end by an Elamite invasion, when the temple of the Moon- god must have suffered severely ; certainly' it had to be repaired fairly extensively by the kings of the Larsa Dynasty who in their turn controlled Ur, for we find cones and bricks of Nur-Adad, Arad-Sin, and Rim-Sin. A thoroughgoing reconstruction was undertaken by King Kudur-Mabug, about 2000 , and there are few parts of the existing building where his work cannot be traced. But the reconstructed building was not destined to endure for very long. Early in the second mil- lennium a fresh disaster overwhelmed the city, and the Moon-god's shrine was destroyed ; beneath the pavement of the succeeding period was found a thick stratum composed of the fragme
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