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THE PROFESSION of glass-making has a long history, and it is most interesting that David K. Down, the well-known Australian archaeologist and lecturer, states in his archaeological journal Diggings that “an archaeological team working at Nippur, in Iraq, has found what they consider to be the oldest sample of glass that has ever been found”. He says that there have been other claims of similar finds which have not been proved to be actual glass. Nippur—sometimes equated with the Calneh of Genesis 10:10—has been rewarding for the archaeologist over the years, for it was one of the principal cities of Mesopotamia, and well-documented archaeological finds in that area are on record. The city is about eighty kilometres southeast of Babylon, and is known to have been a religious centre, with a number of temples, and a ziggurat measuring 58 by 39 metres at its base. The earliest excavations at Nippur were conducted by Layard (the discoverer of Nineveh) in 1850, and his work was advanced by a team from the University of Pennsylvania from 1884 to 1896. In 1948 the work continued under the aegis of the American School of Oriental Research, during which time the temples of Ishtar and Inanna were discovered, and also the Parthian temple.

It was at this juncture that the archaeologists came upon a great collection of about 80,000 cuneiform tablets, mostly unearthed at the city called Tel Duraihim, approximately six miles south of Nippur, where it seems the main temple archives were kept. Included in this valuable find were some Sumerian literary texts; also texts for school children, and texts prepared by master scribes as guidelines for future scribes.

A most interesting detail revealed in Diggings concerns the archives of “A business firm by the name of Murashu Sons”, giving particulars of business and banking transactions, and allowing archaeologists an absorbing insight into methodical business practices in vogue 2,500 years ago. These tablets disclosed information that is quite striking. It is now known that many of the people who had business dealings with this noted company had Jewish names, and this is an indication that, during their exile in Babylon, a number of Jews settled into being members of the business community and became wealthy in the process. It appears that some of the Jewish clients of Murashu Sons were tenants, while others were creditors with large sums of money to their accounts, and others, yet again, were government officers, highlighting the fact that Jews such as Mordecai, Ezra and Nehemiah attained to high office in the Persian Government.

From Jeremiah 29:4-7 we learn that the Jews were told to lead settled lives during their Babylonian captivity: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive . . . Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons ... And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive” (RAV). Diggings makes the observation that, some time after Nippur was abandoned in the tenth century A.D., another settlement of Jews was located there.

Another exciting discovery at Nippur was the plans of the city, which were so well drawn that they were of great help to the archaeologists in their excavations.

Nippur was the scene for further archaeological work at a later date, this time by the Oriental Institute of Chicago in 1972; and at a depth of eight metres the shaft revealed interesting remains from the Akkadian civilisation. Subsequently a trench dug ten metres long and two metres deep unearthed ruins from the Greek Seleucid period. More digging discovered the doorway of a house from Babylonian times, and below this were houses and graves from the Assyrian age, about 700 B.C., all adding substantially to what was known already by the archaeologist.

David Down discloses that, at a depth of seven metres, a brick building was found with bricks typical of the period: flat underneath and rounded on top, and known as ‘piano convex bricks’. This discovery was made at the level known as Ur III, the third dynasty of Ur of the Chaldees. Lower down were more piano convex brick walls, and five cuneiform tablets with accounts inscribed upon them. It was at this level that a glass bead was found, together with pottery and bronze pins. It was at first thought that the glass bead could have been from a later period, but another glass bead was fortuitously found, and confirmed that this was the oldest specimen of glass ever discovered.

On the last day of the excavations at Nippur the trench was dug deeper into the early dynastic period and more graves were revealed. One was that of a child. One skeleton had a band of gold around the neck, and near the shoulder was a green marble cylinder seal. The seal was marvellously carved and depicted a man being presented to a god seated on a mythical animal. The name Lugal Dur, which was apparently the name of the man being thus presented, was clearly inscribed. Another late find was an exquisite cylinder seal, a bronze axe and spearhead, and a long pin. McGuire Gibson, the archaeologist, makes the suggestion that people of note, as a measure of their importance, used two seals, one for their office and another for personal use.

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