Mesopotamian antiquities are nearly always found in Tells, or
artificial mounds, which are the sites of ancient towns or temples.
The surrounding plain for a distance of several hundred yards out,
whether steppe-desert or untilled land, will usually be found to be
productive of antiquities, either a few inches or few feet deep or,
in the case of the dessert, actually lying upon the surface. These
are usually the result of rainstorms washing out antiquities from the
tell itself. Each tell or ganglion of connected tells usually has a
number of small subsidiary tells round about it, the sites of small
isolated buildings or villages connected with the central settlement.
Originally the settlements were built upon natural rises of the
ground which stood up as islands in the fen-country.
Visitors should give the local names of tells in Arabic characters,
when possible, so that mistakes in transliteration into English may
be avoided. Antiquities bought in the neighbourhood of a tell should
be noted as coming from that neighbourhood. Depredations by Arabs (or
by others!) should be noted, and reported to the nearest Political
Officer or Inspector of Antiquities. The barbarous practice of
forcibly dislodging inscribed bricks from walls, as trophies and
'souvenirs', which has unhappily been common during the war, should
never be imitated and always discountenanced as much as possible.
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