No information about papyri is given here, for the reason that any
site containing them should not be touched except by a trained
excavator.

[ILLUSTRATION XIII: EGYPTIAN POTTERY TYPES]




CHAPTER VIII


MESOPOTAMIA


[See the diagrams of flint implements, Illustration II; pottery and
brick-forms, Illustration XIV; cuneiform signs, and other scripts
Illustration XV].

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