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 from profanation: so says Arrian, and his statement is supported by the inscriptions.

It cannot be averred absolutely that any of the graves hitherto discovered in Mesopotamia are of primitive origin. Certainly the cemeteries discovered at Nimrud, Kuyundshik, and Khorsabad, are not Assyrian; as for Babylonian cemeteries there is no fixing of their date. In some tombs, such for example as the sepulchral mound discovered by Taylor among the ruins of Ur, the seal cylinders found indicate high antiquity. The mounds, which mark the sites of ancient cemeteries, have been kept so dry by means of careful drainage through clay pipes that the vaulting of the tombs and the clay sarcophagi are preserved in perfect condition. The tombs of Ur are those for which there is most reason to assume an Early Babylonian date. These are of two kinds: one type consists of an oval cover of clay, something like an inverted dish, about seven feet long, five feet high and two and a half feet broad; the other is a brick vault, seven feet long, five feet high, and three feet broad. Among the skeletons traces have been found of linen swathings, and in the tombs vessels of clay and copper, some of them containing the remains of date kernels. The massive cemented urns which were found containing remains of skeletons among the ruins of Warka