volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Examination of the Mounds. 265
the night there, but we went on, and before long regretted
that we had done so. We had to make a detour
to avoid a tract of land which our guide hoped would be
dry, but turned out to be covered with watpr, and the
sun set when we were still five or six miles from Der.
The rain never ceased, and the night fisU quickly, but
our guide went on, and about 7.30 we came to the ridges
which contain the remains of the walls of the old city of
Der, and we rode through the gateway and up on to
the largest mound. The tents were wet and heavy
to handle, but everybody worked with a will, and by
ten o'clock they were all pitched, and we were able to
light a fire and cook some kind of supper. As we had
arranged with some Arabs at Mahmudiyah to bring us
loads of water early the next morning, we set our three
huge water-jars in position in front of the door of the
largest tent before we attempted to sleep.
Rain fell heavily all the following day, and all I
could do was to walk about and examine the mounds,
and settle upon the places where to begin work. I found
that Hasan's report was correct, and that a great many
parts of the largest mounds had been dug into, especially
in the south-east portion of it, and the broken tablets
which were Ijdng about everywhere convinced me that
a great " find " had been made by those who dug there
secretly. In some half dozen places it was easy to
see that the excavations which they had made had
been filled in again carefully, and I decided to clear
these out first of all. In two places we found piles of
large bricks of the Sassanian period, and close to the
east gateway we uncovered easily a part of a massive
buttress made of burnt bricks, bearing the name and
titles of Nebuchadnezzar II. In the course of the afternoon
various Arab shekhs came to see me, and they
pointed out that I had made no arrangement with them
for occupying the site. I agreed to employ some of their
men in the diggings, and others as watchmen, but it
was clear that they thought I was poaching on their
preserves, and they did not like it. Still later in the
day several men arrived from Abu Habbah, and as they