Travels and researches in Chaldaea and Susiana; with an account of excavations at Warka, the "Erech" of Nimrod, and Shúsh, "Shushan the palace" of Esther, in 1849-52, under the orders of major-general Sir W.F. Williams of Kars, Bart., K.C.B., M.P., and also of the Assyrian excavation fund in 1853-4.

Ancient world 1541 Loftus, William Kennett, 1820-1858. Travels and researches in Chaldaea and Susiana; with an account of excavations at Warka, the "Erech" of Nimrod, and Shúsh, "Shushan the palace" of Esther, in 1849-52, under the orders of major-general Sir W.F. Williams of Kars, Bart., K.C.B., M.P., and also of the Assyrian excavation fund in 1853-4. Westmead, England: Gregg International Publishers, 1971, xvi, 436 pages: frontispiece, illustrations, plates, folded maps. Very good copy of this 1971 reprint. Small note: The American edition of this book calls for three folding maps but I see no reference to three in this the English first, (has two) published in London by James Nisbet and Co. Checked many European libraries but no reference. $27.50

Chapters on Bagdad to Babylon, Babylon, Chaldaea, marshes, Bedouins, archaeology and excavations, Susa, Palace of Darius at Susa, , &c.

William Kennett Loftus (1821-58) describes his archaeological surveying and excavations in Mesopotamia between 1849 and 1855. An enthusiastic antiquarian and geologist, Loftus was appointed to the staff of the Turco-Persian Frontier Commission. On his travels, he located many ruins later identified as biblical cities, including Warkah (Uruk) and Tell el-Muqayyar (Ur). In 1854 Loftus was enabled by the newly formed Assyrian Excavation Fund to return to Warkah, and he excavated over a three-month period, discovering artefacts and cuneiform tablets which he sent to the British Museum. His Travels and Researches, describing his work in Mesopotamia up to 1852, was published in 1857, and his short account of his later work at Warkah in 1859, after his early death. These texts remain a record of the first discoveries in a region significant for its biblical history, but previously hardly visited by Europeans.