HiddenMysteries: New Babylonian town found

Iraqi archaeologists have discovered a new Babylonian town 180 kilometers south of Baghdad.

The head archaeologist Mohammed Yahya said the town is more than 20,000 square meters in area and includes administrative quarters, temples and other buildings of “magnificent and splendid design”

Yahya, who is the head of the provincial Antiquities Department in the Province of Diwaniya, where the new Babylonian town was discovered, said he still lacks evidence on the town’s ancient name.

The locals call it Shamiya after a provincial district nearby, he said.

“We have dug up a sectional sounding covering more than 20 square meters and have come across fascinating finds,” he said.

Most striking has been a 30-kilogram Babylonian Duck Weight.

“This is a unique find because the duck weights discovered so far are maximum 10 kilograms,” Yahya said.

He added that his team has come across several cuneiform tablets but “there is no one to read the ancient writing because Iraqi experts with the knowledge to decipher Mesopotamian script have fled the country.”

The shape of the finds tells that they belong to the Late Babylonian Period, about 1000 BC, Yahya said, but added that only specialists can give the exact dates.

The scientists have unearthed four graves but the positioning of the bodies has been somewhat perplexing.

Yahya said two of them had half of their bodies buried in the wall of a house and the other half in an urn.

The two others had iron nails in their hands, feet and necks indicating that they might have been executed, he added.

“Ancient Babylonian legislations must have been quite brutal,” he added.

Other finds include cylinder seals which could easily be compared with counterparts discovered in Babylon, 90 kilometers away.

“We have evidence of an intricate and highly developed sewage system in the town which can easily be compared with modern ones,” he said.

http://www.azzaman.com

New Babylonian town found

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 01:38 AM CDT