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 a small part of the probable contents of the mounds has yet been found. Although the records of excavations here were somewhat lacking in detail at first, they have, thanks to the fortunate circumstance of a lively controversy which brought out all that there was remembered, been so set forth as to be perhaps the most instructive of all as to the library situation of the region.

The following from Peter's Nippur gives a vivid glimpse of the possibilities of excavation: "Here, in one room of a house of unbaked brick, about ten metres long by five metres broad, there had evidently been a depository of tablets; these had been placed around the walls of the room on wooden shelves, the ashes of which we found mixed with the tablets on the floor. We took out of this room thousands of tablets, of unbaked clay. For four days eight gangs were taking out tablets from this room, as fast as they