By Nile and Tigris - a narrative of Journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British Museum between the years 1886 and 1913 (1920) (14593678960)

Identifier: byniletigrisnarr01budguoft (find matches)
Title: By Nile and Tigris : a narrative of Journeys in Egypt and Mesopotamia on behalf of the British Museum between the years 1886 and 1913
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir, 1857-1934
Subjects: Egypt -- Antiquities Egypt -- Description and travel Iraq -- Description and travel Iraq -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : Murray
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



Text Appearing Before Image:
he corner of a rectangular building, and that it wasformed by parts of its east and south walls. The easternpart was about 35 feet high, and the southern about20 feet, and there was a great rent or tear in the brick-work about 17 feet deep ; the brickwork was perforatedin many places, and light and air could pass through itsmass. The bricks used in the construction of the portionof the Birs which I could examine closely were baked,and were close-grained, and very hard, and rather lightin colour. They were laid in a sort of white cement(which my knife failed to scratch, so hard was it), andwere about 12 inches square and 3^ inches thick. Passingto the south and south-western parts of the moundimmediately below the Birs, we saw some huge massesof brickwork scattered about in all directions. Thesewere formed of bricks of similar size and shape and textureas those just mentioned, and were also set in white cement,or perhaps lime mixed with some other substance. But To face p. 25O, vol. i.
Text Appearing After Image:
The Vitrified Brickwork at Birs-i-Nimriid. 257 the extraordinary thing about these masses was thatthey were vitrified, and looked far more hke masses ofpartially melted glass than brickwork. Variations intheir colour showed that the heat which had produced thevitrification was not of equal intensity in all their parts,but everywhere their surfaces were covered with vitreousglaze as hard as flint. In some cases the white cementand the bricks seemed to have been melted together bythe intense heat to which they had been subjected. I was familiar with the general results which Rawlinsonobtained when he carried on excavations at the Birs withMr. Tonietti in 1854, and I naturally looked at all partsof the mound very carefully to see if I could see any tracesof the various stages of the great Tower of Borsippa,which he described so minutely. But I failed to do so.I could not even find the mass of red brickwork whichKer Porter mentions,^ nor the large bricks, nearly fiveinches thick, set in l