Hermann Volrath Hilprecht

In 1886, he left for the United States, where he became linguistic editor of the Sunday-School Times, and a professor of Assyrian at the University of Pennsylvania.

He also rearranged the Imperial Ottoman Museum for which the director Osman Hamdi Bey showed his gratitude with a favorable separation of the findings.

This publication series incorporated also quantities of bought cuneiform tablets, acquired in Baghdad from the antiquities dealers which tried to undermine the efforts of continuing the US excavations.

With announcing the discovery of the Temple Library of Nippur after finishing the fourth campaign, some other team members including the former expedition director John Punnett Peters built a strong opposition against Hilprecht who claimed "the cream" of nearly every important discovery as his work.

Peter's officially charged Hilprecht with inaccuracies and, worse, deception in relation to his Nippur publications and lectures.

Hilprecht put the entire matter in the hands of the board of the University of Pennsylvania, which conducted an official examination, much like a modern court case, with all sides submitting their arguments and evidences.

"[3] This fierce controversy fought in newspapers and even lectures prevented most of the research of the acquired material for the next years.