. Nippur; or, Explorations and adventures on the Euphrates : the narrative of the University of Pennsylvania expedition to Babylonia in the years 1888-1890 . DEIR TO AXAH. I4I in the clay, and can scarcely be taken as an indication ofdate. So, also, the potsherds, which were strewn overthe surface of the city within the walls in lar^e quan-tities, were of a character too general to allow dating, atleast on the basis of our present knowledge. The build-ing-stones which had been used were generally gj-psumfrom the bluffs on the plateau near by, but we also foundpieces of a volcanic stone. At el-
. Nippur; or, Explorations and adventures on the Euphrates : the narrative of the University of Pennsylvania expedition to Babylonia in the years 1888-1890 . DEIR TO AXAH. I4I in the clay, and can scarcely be taken as an indication ofdate. So, also, the potsherds, which were strewn overthe surface of the city within the walls in lar^e quan-tities, were of a character too general to allow dating, atleast on the basis of our present knowledge. The build-ing-stones which had been used were generally gj-psumfrom the bluffs on the plateau near by, but we also foundpieces of a volcanic stone. At el-Kaim, where we spent the night in the zaptiehbarracks, there are the remains of some structure, ap-parently of Arabic origin. There are also four or fiveruined water-wheels, or naouras, at this point, and, fromel-Kaim, downward to Hit, these are the characteristicruins. At the present day not one in ten of thesenaouras still serves to raise water; but Chesneys expedi-. I^M ^ WATER-WHEELS ON THE EIPHRATES. tion, in 1837, reported two thirds of them to be in is only one of the evidences of progressive retrogres-sion within this century in the valley of the Euphrates. El-Kaim lies on a low point of the plateau which runsalmost to the banks of the river. The existence of theruins of Irsi on the Mesopotamian side of the river, withJabrieh and el-Kaim close together on the Arabic side,would seem to show that at one time this was a populousand important section. Ainsworth says that sixty yearsago this was the point at which caravans from southern 142 NIPPUR. Syria and Palestine to Baghdad and Persia first touchedthe Euphrates. I did not hear of any such route exist-ing now; but I met natives later who had made thejourney from Aleppo to Baghdad by a route south ofthe Euphrates, only touching that river at one or twopoints. Ainsworth identifies el-Kaim with the Agamnaof Ptolemy. We had very poor quarters in the barracks; and I, withField and Harper,
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