Only a few weeks after Sir Leonard Woolley completed the manus-
cript of the present volume came the sad news of his illness, followed
by that of his death. We thus found ourselves entrusted with the grave
responsibility of seeing Sir Leonard's last work through the press
without having the opportunity to consult him. We have endeavour-
ed to produce a volume that would be worthy of its author, but for
technical reasons some minor changes have had to be made in Sir
Leonard's original selection of plates. We have been anxious to com-
ply with the author's wishes so far as possible by choosing particularly
fine and characteristic objects for reproduction, and our special
thanks are due to all those who have supplied the plates and captions,
or otherwise helped in the production of this volume. If there should
be any shortcomings, despite all the care taken, they should be ascrib-
ed to the publishers, not to the author.

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