 | Harbor Temple | The Harbor Temple had no field abbreviation, probably because HT was already in use and because very few artifacts were found within. Despite being largely empty, this building was described by Woolley as one of the best preserved temples of the Neo-Babylonian period in Mesopotamia.
The temple covered 33x27 meters and some of the bricks in its walls bore the inscription of Nebuchadnezzar. Nonetheless, Woolley suggested Nabonidus as the more likely founder. The walls were of mud brick with baked brick facing up to a meter thick and they stood to a height of 6.5 meters. The entire building was filled with clean sand and Woolley proposed that it was, in fact, not the actual temple but a complete replica beneath the surface never intended for human use. The actual temple would have stood above and it had completely eroded away. Evidence for the upper temple was found in a few paving bricks of Nabonidus at a level equivalent to the floor of the nearby 'Palace of Belshaltinannar'. In fact, Woolley suggested that the Harbor Temple may have been a chapel specifically associated with this building.
Creating such a substructure has apparent (much earlier) textual but not archaeological precedent. Woolley believed that after the sub-temple was complete, it was consecrated to the gods and then filled with sand, then an entire temple built again above it for human use. No indication of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated was found.
The temple was first uncovered at the end of season 8 and a temporary wooden roof was erected to keep it from filling in during summer sandstorms. So roofed, it appeared remarkably complete and Woolley suggested it be preserved this way for tourists to experience. | (none) |