Nippur II. The North Temple and Sounding E: Excavations of the Joint Expedition to Nippur of the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

During the third season of excavation at Nippur an Early Dynastic temple was discovered in the northwestern part of the Religious Quarter which became the site of the major activity of the fourth season. This volume details the findings and results uncovered at this temple by the joint expedition of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and the Baghdad School of the American Schools of Oriental Research. The first task on the resumption of excavations in the North Temple area (the designation given the region of the Early Dynastic temple) was to expand the area of excavations to be sure that it included all the territory of the temple or complex surrounding that building. This involved rapid digging of levels dating around the middle of the first millennium b.c. A second phase ensued with the excavation of levels from the third millennium around the North Temple proper. [From the Preface, p. ix, by D. E. McCown].