Fig. 243.—Figure of Papsukal, from foundation casket of Ishtar temple.
The temple of Ishtar of Agade lies among the houses of the northern group of Merkes (Fig. 244). The entrance façade faces the south, where the street that passes it widens out into a somewhat lengthy piazza.
Through the principal portal, with its grooved towers, we enter the vestibule (1), from which doors to right and left lead to the side-chambers, and which opens directly on to the square court. In the cella (18) with the adyton (19) the postament that stood in the niche immediately opposite the entrance had been taken away, and only the brick casket (k) that contained the statuette of Papsukal (Fig. 243) was still there. Similar brick caskets lay in the court doorway that led to the buildings connected with the cella, in the middle and on the western side of the southern main entrance. The two small chambers (20 and 21) near the chamber in front of the cella are accessible from it, as well as directly from the court. The entire cella building (17–22), as in the temple of Borsippa (Fig. 246), forms a completely self-contained block, separated from the enclosing wall of the temple by a narrow passage (10). From this passage room 9 can be reached, and also the southern series of rooms. This series (11–15) consists of four rather small rooms and apparently a court (13), in which two circular storage places are built.
Fig. 244.—Ground plan of temple of Ishtar of Agade, Merkes.
Fig. 245.—Section of temple of Ishtar of Agade, Merkes.
There is a side entrance on the east which opens into the court through a small vestibule (4) that communicates with the main vestibule through chambers 3 and 2. Two small rooms (5 and 6) are accessible from the court. The wall decoration is as usual composed of flat pillars on the outside of the building and in the court. The main entrance on the south, and the door from the court leading to the cella (Fig. 247), are distinguished by a double framing. The three doors on the east side of the court, the side entrance, and the actual cella door have a single frame. The grooving on the front of the towers of the main entrance, and of the door leading from the court to the cella is simply rectangular. It was only during the last restoration of the building that the simple grooves were elaborated by stepped additions, like those of the Ninib temple.
Fig. 246.—Ground-plan of Ezida, the temple of Nebo, in Borsippa.
Fig. 247.—Temple of Ishtar of Agade in Merkes; view of cella façade.
Three building periods can be recognised here (Fig. 245). Of the earliest building only the 7 lower courses remain. The ground-plan is in the main the same as that of the later building that rests upon it, but the wall fronts everywhere deviate slightly from the lines of the latter. The pavement of the later building consists of one plain layer, that lies almost at the level at which the walls begin. The gypsum wash still adheres to the walls. At several of the more important places, such as the main entrance to the temple, the entrance from the court to the cella, the cella door, and the postament niche, instead of a gypsum wash there is a thin wash of black asphalt, which near the edges is broken with ornamental vertical lines of white gypsum. Similar decorations, though not so well preserved and recognisable, were visible in temple “Z,” and in the temples of Ninib and Ninmach. These portions stood out from the white walls with mysterious and startling effect.
The temple was raised and a new double pavement of Nebuchadnezzar bricks was laid at a height of 4 to 4½ metres above zero. To this pavement, of course, all the brick caskets belong which lay close to the pavement of the earlier periods but above it, as, for instance, the casket in the door from the court to the cella.
An additional raising with a new brick pavement at 5 metres above zero, belongs apparently to a rebuilding undertaken by Nabonidus, according to the inscription on his foundation cylinder which was found here. The cylinder lay at about the height of the last-mentioned pavement, in the middle of the northern enclosing wall, between the first two pillars on the west, and exactly at the place where it was deposited by Nabonidus. It stood upright in a sort of basket of plaited work, of which the remains were still quite recognisable, and which had formerly shielded it from damage in the small aperture within the mud-brick wall. In the inscription the king speaks of the ruinous condition of this “Temple of Ishtar of Agade,” and the work undertaken by him for its restoration.
The building was surrounded by a kisu of Nebuchadnezzar bricks which reaches down as far as 3.6 metres above zero, and which must therefore belong to one of the later rebuildings. A water conduit constructed on the south side (W in the plan), similar to that in the Ninib temple, was walled up by the kisu.