volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Colonel Tweedie Visits Dir, 279
or would tiot understand that we were digging merely
for inscribed antiquities, but were quite sure that our
real object in excavating Der was to find buried treasure.
They thought that the English obtained the knowledge
of its existence by magic {sihr) and from old books,
and wer^ much surprised that we did not find pots of
money and caskets of gems every few days.
I kept the British Consul-General, Colonel Tweedie,
informed weekly of the progress of our work, but for
some time he refused to believe that the mounds had
been systematically excavated before permission to
" inspect " them was given by the Porte. At length
he made enquiries privately in the town, and the information
which he received made him decide to visit
Der and examine the site for himself. He drove across
the desert from Baghdad in a carriage on Friday,
January 30th, and spent several hours in walking about
our mound and examining the old and new trenches
and shafts. When he had seen all there was to be seen
he sat down and talked very high-class Arabic with
the Delegate, who was delighted to be able to quote
Kur'an and ancient Kasa'id {i.e., poems) to him. Then
they discussed the excavations, and Colonel Tweedie told
the Delegate that he felt it to be his duty to write a
report on the subject to the British Ambassador in
Constantinople; and on his return to Baghdad he did
so, and protested against the breach of faith on the
part of the Baghdad Government and the Porte. At
his suggestion the Delegate and I went on the following
day to Mahmudiyah, and tried to obtain from the
Mudir some information about the secret diggings at
Der, but we failed. However, he offered to sell me
some very good tablets, and among those which I
bought from him were the List of Events by which the
Babylonians reckoned their years during the reigns of
Sumu-abu, Sumu-la-ilu, Zabum, Apil-Sin, Sin-muballit,
Khammurabi and Samsu-iluna, i.e., from B.C. 2300 to
B.C. 2110,1 and the four-sided block of clay inscribed
1 Brit. Mus. No. 92,702. See Guide to the Assyr. and Baby.
Collections, p. 171,