Chapter V: Comparison Between Egypt and Chaldæa (3)

[32] STRABO (xvi. i. 5) pretends that the hanging gardens of Babylon were watered by means of the _screw of Archimedes_ (κοχλίας or κόχλος). If it be true that this invention was known to the Chaldæans, it may also have been used to raise water to the platforms of the Assyrian palaces. The discovery, however, is usually attributed to the Sicilian mathematician, and STRABO’S evidence is too isolated and too recent to allow us to accept it without question.

[33] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 197.

[34] LOFTUS, _Travels and Researches_, chapter xvi. and especially page 179.

[35] DIODORUS, ii. viii. 3–4.

[36] DIODORUS, ii. viii. 7.

[37] OPPERT, _Expédition scientifique de Mésopotamie_, vol. i. p. 150. See also LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 508, upon the tradition of the Arabs relating to the tall tamarisk, the only tree that grows on the summit of the mound.

[38] J. MÉNANT, _Babylon et la Chaldée_ (1 vol. 8vo. 1875), p. 181.

[39] DIODORUS (ii. 10), speaks of λίθιναι δοκοί, or stone beams, to which he attributes a length of sixteen feet, and a width of four; STRABO (xvii. i. 5) makes use of the expression, ψαλιδώματα καμαρωτά, which means _vaulted arcades_. Both writers agree that there were several terraces one above another. Diodorus says that the whole--as seen from the Euphrates no doubt--looked like a theatre. Both give the same measurements to these hanging gardens; they tell us they made a square of from three to four plethra each way (410 feet). The mound of Tell-Amran is much larger than this, and if it really be on the site of the famous gardens, it must include the ruins of other buildings besides, pleasure houses, chapels and kiosks, like those figured in the reliefs, to which we have already had frequent occasion to allude.

[40] LAYARD believes himself to have ascertained that the buildings on one part of the Nimroud mound were ruined and covered with earth, when those upon another part of the platform were founded. The paved floor of the north-western palace is on a level with the upper part of the walls of the north-eastern and central palaces (_Nineveh_, vol. iii. p. 202).

[41] George SMITH, _Assyrian Discoveries_, (pp. 71–73), gives the following _résumé_ of the monumental history of Calah, from the inscriptions found at Nimroud. “A city was built on this spot by Shalmaneser I., King of Assyria, B.C. 1300, but this afterwards fell into decay, and was destroyed during the subsequent troubles which came on the Assyrian Empire. Assurnazirpal, who ascended the Assyrian throne B.C. 885, resolved to rebuild the city; and bringing numbers of captives taken during his wars, he set them to work to rebuild Calah, and then settled there to inhabit it. The north-west palace and the temples near the tower were the work of this king, and from these came most of the fine Nimroud sculptures in the British Museum. Shalmaneser II., King of Assyria, succeeded his father Assurnazirpal, B.C. 860. He built the centre palace, and the base at least of the south-eastern palace. Vulnirari III., his grandson, B.C. 812, built the upper chambers and the temple of Nebo; and Tiglath-pileser II., B.C. 745, rebuilt the centre palace. Sargon, King of Assyria, B.C. 722, restored the north-west palace, and his grandson, Esarhaddon, B.C. 681, built the south-west palace. Lastly the grandson of Esarhaddon, Assur-ebil-ili, the last King of Assyria, rebuilt the temple of Nebo just before the destruction of the Assyrian Empire.” A general description of the platform and the buildings upon it will be found in LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 653–656.

[42] This idea is favoured by LAYARD (_Discoveries_, p. 654).

[43] The central palace was partly destroyed even in the days of the Assyrians, by a king who wished to make use of its materials. LAYARD (_Nineveh_, ii. p. 19) found more than a hundred sculptured slabs stacked against each other, as if in a warehouse. The architect of Esarhaddon, the author of this spoliation, had not finished his work when it was suddenly interrupted. For a full account of the discoveries in the south-eastern palace, see LAYARD, _Nineveh_, ii. pp. 38–40.

[44] Especially from the central palace (LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 656). The small rectangles shown on our plan at each side of the wall dividing the rooms marked 2 and 3 from each other, represent slabs lying on the ground at the foot of the wall for whose decoration they were intended. They were never put in place. The bases of circular pedestals, standing very slightly above the ground, are also marked. Sir H. Layard could not divine their use.

[45] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. pp. 25, 26, and 29.

[46] For an account of the excavations see LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. i. pp. 34, 39, 46, 59–62, 347–350; vol. ii. pp. 25–36.

[47] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. pp. 14–16.

[48] All the passages by ancient writers bearing on the subject will be found collected in the first of those articles of HŒFER, of which we have already had occasion to speak. Its title is: _Textes anciens sur l’Histoire et la Position de Ninive_. It is certain that even in the Roman period its site was not positively known. Lucian, who was born at Samosata, less than a hundred leagues from Nineveh, says: “Nineveh has perished; no trace of it remains, and we cannot say where it stood” (_Charon_, c. xxiii).

[49] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 137.

[50] The plan in which LAYARD shows the results of his two digging campaigns will be found in the _Discoveries_, facing page 67. For the excavations at Kouyundjik see also his _Nineveh_, vol. ii. chapter xiv, and _Discoveries_, pp. 67–76, 102–120, 135–161, 228–233, 337–347, 438–463, 582–588, and 645–652. Layard attempts to give a general idea of the palace and of its decorations. There is also much detailed information regarding this building in RAWLINSON’S _Five Great Monarchies_, vol. ii. pp. 178–133.

[51] The only details that have been given, so far as we know, of the discovery and exhumation of Assurbanipal’s palace, are to be found in an article by Mr. Rassam entitled: _Excavations and Discoveries in Assyria_ (_Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, vol. vii. pp. 37–58). This paper contains a plan of the northern palace (p. 40).

[52] “Ervil is the site of the Assyrian city of Arbela, and in the plains outside it was fought the great battle between Alexander and Darius. I had no time to examine the place, but I saw in passing that there were mounds rivalling in size those of the Assyrian capital. Over the principal mound a Turkish fortress is built, which would make it difficult to excavate here; but as Arbela was a great city, much may be expected here whenever it is explored.” GEORGE SMITH, _Assyrian Discoveries_, p. 67.

[53] See the article by Mr. Rassam quoted on the last page. The plan (p. 52) he gives does not tell us much.

[54] See LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. pp. 45–63; and _Discoveries_, p. 581.

[55] See PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 169.

[56] It is in chapters xi. to xiv. of his second work (_Discoveries_, &c.) that LAYARD tells the story of his discoveries in that valley of the Chaboras from which the writings of Ezekiel were dated.

[57] See page 145.

[58] We have noticed at pages 176 and 177 of our first volume the two passages in which Strabo discusses the houses of Susiana and Chaldæa. As to the villages in the Euphrates valley, in which domes are still used, see OPPERT, _Expédition scientifique_, vol. i. p. 46.

[59] HERODOTUS, i. 180.

[60] DIODORUS, ii. viii. 4, 5.

[61] G. SMITH, _Assyrian Discoveries_, pp. 55, 56. M. OPPERT also admits that this is the only city that has left traces that cannot easily be mistaken. (_Expedition scientifique_, vol. i. pp. 194, 195.)

[62] HERODOTUS, i. 178.

[63] DIODORUS, ii. vii. 3. The following passage has been quoted from ARISTOTLE’S _Politics_ (iii. 1), as supporting the assertion of Diodorus: “It is obvious that a town is not made by a wall; one might, if that were so, make the Peloponnesus into a town, Babylon, perhaps, and some other towns belong to this class, their _enceinte_ inclosing towns rather than cities.” The text of Aristotle seems to me to prove nothing more than that the philosopher was acquainted with the descriptions of Diodorus and Ctesias. He says nothing as to their exactness; he merely borrows an illustration from them, by which he attempts to make his thought more clear, and to explain the difference between a real city with an organic life of its own, and a mere space surrounded by walls, in which men might live in close neighbourhood with each other, but with nothing that could be called civic life. All the texts relating to the ancient boundaries of Babylon will be found united in M. OPPERT’S examination of this question.

[64] Even now the wall of the Royal City stands up more than thirty feet above the level of the plain.

[65] HERODOTUS says nothing of the tunnel; DIODORUS alone mentions it (ii. ix. 2). See OPPERT on this subject. He believes in its existence (_Expédition scientifique_, vol. i. p. 193).

[66] HERODOTUS, i. 186; DIODORUS, ii. viii. 2. Diodorus, following Ctesias, greatly exaggerates the length of the bridge when he puts it at fifty-five stades (3,032 feet). Even if we admit that the Euphrates, which in ancient times lost less of its waters in the adjoining marshes than it does now, was then considerably wider than at present, we can hardly account for such a difference. On the subject of this bridge see OPPERT, _Expédition_ &c., vol. i. pp. 191–193.

[67] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 489.

[68] See OPPERT, _Expédition_ &c., vol. i. pp. 184, 185. HERODOTUS mentions these quays (ii. 180, 186). DIODORUS (ii. viii. 3), gives them a length of 160 stades (nearly 18½ miles), which seems a great exaggeration.

[69] HERODOTUS, i. 180.

[70] And this makes us think that the streets were narrow, a conjecture confirmed by the words of Herodotus. In speaking of the doors above mentioned by which the river was reached, he does not use the word πύλαι, but πυλίδες, its diminutive. If these doors were so small, the streets must have been lanes.

[71] This we gather from more than one phrase of the historian (ii. 183 and 196).

[72] DIODORUS, ii. viii, 3

[73] All that he says is that it was on the Tigris (i. 193), that it had a king called Sardanapalus (ii. 150), and that it was taken by the Medes (i. 103, 106).

[74] _Anabasis_, iii. 4.

[75] DIODORUS, ii. iii. 2, 3.

[76] Line 35 of the _Cylinder of Bellino_, after Pongnon (_l’Inscription de Bavian_, p. 25, in the _Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes-Études_).

[77] M. OPPERT also considers the evidence of Ctesias as worthless (_Expédition scientifique_, vol. i. p. 292). Sir HENRY LAYARD on the other hand believes in the great Nineveh of that writer (_Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 243). He is chiefly influenced by the often quoted verses of the Book of Jonah, in which it is declared: “Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey,” and that there were in it “more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,” which, with the ordinary proportion of children to adults, would give a total population of about 800,000. We shall not waste time in explaining that all these expressions are but poetic ways of saying that Nineveh was a great city. It is a singular idea to look for topographical and statistical information in a book which makes a prophet sail from Joppa for Spain and, immediately afterwards, without any preparation, speaks of him as preaching in the streets of Nineveh. Add to this that, according to the most recent criticism, the Book of Jonah is not older than the sixth century before our era, so that it must have been written long after the fall of Nineveh, and when its power was no more than a memory (see NŒLDEKE, _Histoire littéraire de l’Ancien Testament_, p. 116). [In Sir H. Layard’s latest published remarks on the extent of Nineveh, he rejects the statements of Diodorus for much the same reasons as those given by M. Perrot (article on _Nineveh_ in Smith’s _Dictionary of the Bible_, 1863 edition).--ED.]

[78] BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, vol. v. p. 21. OPPERT, _Expédition_, vol. i. p. 292. LAYARD, vol. ii. p. 243. The English explorers have found traces of some external works and of a ditch which is now filled with the waters of the Khausser. RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. pp. 259–261.

[79] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 120–122.

[80] It has no scale.

[81] HERODOTUS, i. 178.

[82] HERODOTUS, i. 179. Herodotus says that the Chaldæans _constructed buildings of a single chamber along each parapet of the wall, leaving room between them_ for a four-horse chariot to turn. His words are: ὲπάνω δὲ τοῦ τείχεος παρὰ τὰ ἔσχατα, οἰκήματα μουνόκωλα ἔδειμαν, τετραμμένα ἐς ἄλληλα· τὸ μέσον δὲ τῶν οἰκημάτων ἔλιπον τεθρίππῳ περιέλασιν.--ED.

[83] DIODORUS, ii. vii. 4.

[84] In many carved pictures of sieges we see soldiers who appear to be digging mines (LAYARD, _Monuments_, series i. plates 19, 20, 66. RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. p. 473).

[85] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 165; vol. ii. p. 11.

[86] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 197–198.

[87] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, Vol. I. p. 342.

[88] See Vol. I. Page 242, and Fig. 97.

[89] All these details are taken from PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 169–182.

[90] _Genesis_ xix. 1.

[91] _Genesis_ xxiii. 10.

[92] _Ruth_ iv. 1 and 2.

[93] See also 2 Kings vii. 1.--ED.

[94] _Esther_ ii. 21.

[95] _Esther_ iii. 2, 3, iv. 2, 6.

[96] At Semil, to the north of Mossoul, Layard saw the Yezidi chief, “Abde Agha, seated in the gate, a vaulted entrance with deep recesses on both sides, used as places of assembly for business during the day, and as places of rest for guests during the night.”--_Discoveries_, p. 57.

[97] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 186.

[98] It is even believed that the Assyrians used a machine for launching great stones, like the Roman catapult. The representations in the bas-reliefs are not, however, very clear. RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. p. 472.

[99] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i. p. 196. Causeways of this kind may be noticed stretching away from the tower in our Fig. 29. See also LAYARD, _Monuments_, 2nd series, plates 18 and 21.

[100] A few terra-cotta statuettes have certainly been found, but these seem to be idols rather than images of the defunct.

[101] The ordinary and principal office of the human-headed bull, was to guard the doors of temples and palaces, but in his _rôle_ of protecting genius, other functions were included. Thus, in a bas-relief representing Sargon’s campaigns in Phœnicia, we find a bull that seems to be walking on the sea. With Anon, Oannes, or Dagon, the fish-god, he presides over the journeys of the ships that bring cargoes of wood from Lebanon (BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, plate 32).

[102] M. LENORMANT has collected these texts in his _Origines de l’Histoire_, vol. i. p. 115.

[103] This must represent one of the favourite rites of the Chaldæo-Assyrian religion, allusion to it is made in the passage given as a letter of Jeremiah (BARUCH vi. 25): “Now shall ye see in Babylon gods of silver, and of gold, and of wood, borne upon shoulders, which cause the nations to fear.”

[104] CHABOUILLET (_Catalogue général des Camées de la Bibliothèque nationale_, No. 754) proposes to recognize in the scene here represented the offering of his nightly spouse to Bel in his temple at Babylon (HERODOTUS, i. 181). M. LENORMANT agrees with this interpretation (_Essai de commentaire des Fragments de Bérose_, p. 374). MÉNANT, on the other hand, thinks it as little justified as that which finds the early scenes of Genesis--the temptation of Eve, and the eating of the forbidden fruit--reproduced upon the cylinders (_Remarques sur un cylindre du Musée Britannique, in the Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions_, 1879, pp. 270–286).

[105] In the great stone torso of which we shall speak presently (p. 98), these details seem to have been omitted; at least no trace of them is to be found on the stone; but they may have been added in paint. In figures of men the Assyrians very rarely indicated the male organs. One of the personages sculptured on the Balawat gates affords an exception to this general practice, but he is a prisoner about to be put to death, and the detail in question is a kind of indignity meant by the sculptor to show that the man in question was a savage who fought in _puris naturalibus_.

[106] Among the Lydians, says Herodotus, in his account of the adventure of Gyges (i. 10), “As among nearly all barbarous nations, it was a great indignity, even for a man, to be seen naked.” Conf. PLATO, _Republic_, 452, c; THUCYDIDES, i. 6; XENOPHON, _Hellenica_, iii. iv. 19.

[107] HERODOTUS, i. 195; “As for their dress they wore a linen tunic coming down to their feet, and, over that, a woollen tunic. Finally they wrapped themselves in a short white cloak.”

[108] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. i. fig. 98.

[109] HEUZEV, _Les fouilles de Chaldée_, p. 13.

[110] See _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. i. fig. 255; vol. ii. figs. 247, 259, &c.

[111] _Ibid._ vol. ii. plate facing p. 334, and figs. 268, 269.

[112] See LAYARD, _Monuments_, 1st series, plates 15 and 16.

[113] In one relief the figures of these swimmers are no more than fourteen inches long (British Museum, Assyrian Basement room, No. 56).

[114] LAYARD, _Monuments_, 1st series, plate 57; 2nd series, plates 25 and 28.

[115] _Ibid._ (1st series), plate 63; _Discoveries_, p. 457.

[116] We have refrained from giving a reproduction of this fragment on account of its bad condition. Its surface is rough; it lacks the head, the forearms and the foreparts of the feet. The material is a coarse limestone. The height of the fragment is thirty-eight inches.

[117] No people that have ever lived have been more solicitous than the Assyrians to transmit the remembrance of their exploits to posterity. We thus find that many of their sculptured slabs had their posterior faces, those that were turned to the wall, also covered with inscriptions.

[118] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 437.

[119] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 448.

[120] British Museum. The whole series is illustrated in LAYARD, _Monuments_, 2nd series, plates 20–24.

[121] Sir H. LAYARD’S translation is different (_Discoveries_, p. 152). That quoted in the text has been kindly furnished to us by M. Oppert.

[122] Sir H. LAYARD, who has seen more Assyrian sculptures in place than any one else, seems to have been much struck by these incongruities. “It is rare,” he says, “to find an entire (Assyrian) bas-relief equally well executed in all its parts” (_Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 78).

[123] This impression is still more strongly felt on glancing through the plates in which Sir H. LAYARD has reproduced in their entirety the series of sculptures which we can only show in fragmentary fashion. Compare, for example, the Panathenaic _cortége_ with two processions taken from the palace of Sennacherib, the grooms leading horses, and servants carrying fruits and other comestibles (_Monuments_, 2nd series, plates 7–9), and the triumphal march of the Assyrian army with its chariots (_ib._ plates 47–49).

[124] LAYARD, _Monuments_, 2nd series, plates 45 and 46.

[125] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 302–314.

[126] At Nimroud, in the palace of Esarhaddon, the lions and bulls of the gateways are of a grey and rather coarse limestone, while the bas-reliefs are of alabaster (LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. pp. 26 and 163). The same mixture occurs in the palace of Assurnazirpal. Several of the bulls in that building are of a fine yellow limestone which must have been brought from the hills of Kurdistan (LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 315).

[127] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 316; _Discoveries_, pp. 307, 308, 309, &c.

[128] Each side of the original has five reliefs. We have been compelled to suppress one in order to give our figures sufficient scale.

[129] The obelisk reliefs should be studied in horizontal bands, and not by taking the whole of a face at a time. A translation of the accompanying texts will be found in OPPERT’S _Expédition_, vol. i; and reproductions of all the four faces in LAYARD’S _Monuments_, 1st series, plates 53–56.

[130] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. i, p. 150, and vol. iii. plate 48, fig. 3.

[131] HEUZEY, _Catalogue des figurines en terre cuite du musée du Louvre_, vol. i. p. 26.

[132] HEUZEY, _Catalogue_, &c., p. 18.

[133] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 375.

[134] Both the British Museum and the Louvre possess examples of this kind of work in which the handling shows the greatest freedom.

[135] The slab numbered 107 contains, perhaps, the nearest approach to a reproduction of the group in question.

[136] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 197–203, and figs. 179 and 180.

[137] This was the opinion of M. DE LONGPÉRIER (_Musée Napoléon III._, description of plate 1).

[138] See vol. i. page 242.

[139] See also plate xii.

[140] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 563.

[141] DE LONGPÉRIER, _Notice des antiquités assyriennes du Musée du Louvre_, 3rd edition, 1854.

[142] We take this transcription from a note sent by Dr. BIRCH to the _Athenæum_ (14 July, 1877), when the ivory in question, together with many more objects, was stolen from the British Museum. It was offered by the thief, in the first place, to M. de Longpérier, who thought it a forgery, and afterwards to the keeper of the Hague Museum, who, put on his guard by the publicity which by that time had been given to the theft, detained the piece and restored it to its legitimate owners.

[143] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 293–295.

[144] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 361. The same characteristics may be recognized in the alabaster statues found by PLACE in one of the harem courts at Khorsabad (_Ninive_, vol. i. pp. 122–125, and vol. iii. plate 31, _bis_.). They are shown on a small scale in our fig. 197 (vol. i.). We may see that they were set with their backs against a wall, and that they carried a cushion on their heads, on which we have placed a vase of flowers. These statues were drowned in the Tigris!

[145] We may also quote the following monuments as examples of Assyrian statues: 1. The fragment of a seated statue found at Kaleh-Shergat, which we figure on page 127 (LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. pp. 51–52). 2. The head of a statue of Istar, discovered at Kouyundjik (SMITH, _Assyrian Discoveries_, pp. 248 and 430). This head is about nine inches high. 3. Fragment of a colossal statue of shelly limestone, found in the same place by the same explorer (_ibid._ p. 430). It consists only of a part of the left shoulder. There is an inscription on the back tracing the descent of Assurbanipal from Sargon.

[146] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 284–288; vol. i. fig. 173, and vol. ii. fig. 240.

[147] E. GUILLAUME, in his _Considérations sur les Principes de l’Histoire du Bas-relief_, which was read at the annual public meeting of the five Academies in Paris on the 14th August, 1866, (Didot, 4to.).

[148] Vol. I. page 266.

[149] In this particular, the two large bulls from Khorsabad in the British Museum are better placed than the pair in the Louvre. Their position at the entrance to the Khorsabad Transept (?), gives an exact idea of their original arrangement.--ED.

[150] It must not be thought, however, that its employment was universal. In the palace of Sennacherib, at Kouyundjik, and in one of the palaces at Nimroud, the bulls had only four legs.

[151] See PERROT and GUILLAUME, _Expédition archéologique de la Galatie_, vol. i. pp. 345, 346, and vol. ii. plate 57.

[152] This contrivance may also be seen on the small limestone stele, covered with writing, which represents Assurbanipal carrying a basket on his head, and preparing to make an offering to the gods (British Museum, Assyrian Side Room).

[153] Look for instance at the last figure but one, on the right, in PLACE, vol. iii. plate 60, fig. 4. It is that of a man turning to speak to one who follows him. The feet are turned in one direction, and the head in one diametrically opposite to it. Nothing more ungraceful could be conceived.

[154] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. i. fig. 98; vol. ii. figs. 250, 254, 255, &c.

[155] _Ibid._ p. 294.

[156] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. pp. 185–196, plates ix. x. xi. and figs. 172, 173, 174, 178, 183, 198, 199, 205, 208, 213, 214, 215, 216, 223, &c.

[157] _Ibid._ figs. 273–275.

[158] _Ibid._ p. 192.

[159] An almost unique exception to this rule occurs in those bas-reliefs in the British Museum which represent the great hunts of Assurbanipal. We there see a company of beardless individuals marching, bare-headed, dressed in a short tunic and armed with lance and buckler. But this is an apparent rather than a real exception. The chase is not war. These men are not soldiers, but attendants on the hunt, an inferior kind of _shikarrie_. In the battle pieces we sometimes see the eunuchs attached to the king’s person fighting at his elbow.

[160] We have no reason to believe that the Egyptian fashion of wearing wigs obtained in Assyria (LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. pp. 327, 378). HERODOTUS tells us that in his time the Chaldæans wore long hair (i. 195).

[161] This is the opinion of M. LENORMANT (_Gazette des Beaux Arts_, vol. xxv. pp. 218–225), and M. MÉNANT has upheld the same thesis in a paper read before the Académie des Inscriptions (_Remarques sur des Portraits des Rois Assyro-Chaldéens_, in the _Comptes Rendus_ for 1881, pp. 254–267).

[162] On this point again I regret to be unable to agree with M. MÉNANT; I am unable to perceive any of the differences of which he speaks (see p. 258 of his paper).

[163] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. ii. p. 500.

[164] Upon the discovery of these figures and their nature, see LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 230.

[165] Layard, _Nineveh_, vol. i. pp. 126–127. The English explorer himself remarks in speaking of this relief, that the features of the men show nothing of the special type which the artist endeavoured to suggest by this clumsy expedient.

[166] This is what M. MÉNANT sees in this Babylonian stele: “It represents a race with a short, thickset body, a short neck buried between the shoulders, a flat nose and thick lips” (p. 259 of his paper).

[167] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 537.

[168] HERODOTUS, i. 192.

[169] LOFTUS gives a poor reproduction of this monument, which he found at Sinkara (_Travels_, &c., p. 258). We have not reproduced it, because it is in much worse condition than the terra-cotta dog.

[170] HERODOTUS, i. 193.

[171] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. p. 234. Upon each of these figures appears the dog’s name, which always bears some relation to the qualities he displayed in the performance of his duties.

[172] This relief is figured in RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. p. 356.

[173] W. HOUGHTON, _On the Mammalia of the Assyrian Sculptures_ in the _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_, vol. v. pp. 33–64, and 579–583.

[174] We are tempted to believe that these animals were exterminated before the days of the Sargonids by the unrelenting pursuit to which they were subjected; they are not to be found in the pictures of Assurbanipal’s hunts. On the other hand, in the palace of Assurnazirpal, which dates from two centuries earlier, they were figured with peculiar insistence and in great detail (LAYARD, _Monuments_, first series, plates 11, 12, 32, 43–44, 46, 48 and 49).

[175] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. p. 351; LAYARD, _Monuments_, first series, plate 58. Second series, plates 26 and 29.

[176] LAYARD, _Monuments_, first series, plates 58 and 60.

[177] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 233.

[178] Among the reliefs in which the Assyrian horse may be best studied, are the slabs from the palace of Sennacherib, in which a string of horses led by grooms are shown (LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plate 7). They have no trappings or clothing of any kind to hide their form.

[179] Other incidents, figured with no less spirit, will be found in RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. pp. 355, 356; 516, 517.

[180] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 21, _Monuments_, first series, plate 61; second series, plate 50. BOTTA (_Monuments de Ninive_, plate 128), reproduces a group of camels sketched with a light hand, but with much truth and judgment.

[181] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 433. All four faces of this obelisk are reproduced on plates 53–56 of the first series of LAYARD’S _Monuments_.

[182] RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. pp. 40 and 350; and LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 109.

[183] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. pp. 434, 435.

[184] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 436. The Assyrians seem to have been much struck with these apes when they first appeared at Calah. This is shown by the care expended upon them by the sculptor of Shalmaneser’s obelisk; he has reproduced the bas-relief of Assurnazirpal on a smaller scale (LAYARD, _Monuments_, first series, Plate 55).

[185] LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 437.

[186] LAYARD, _Monuments_, series ii. plates 32 (Khorsabad), and 40 (Kouyundjik).

[187] A lion hunt is to be found in the bas-reliefs of Assurnazirpal, dating from the ninth century, B.C. (LAYARD, _Monuments_, first series, plates 10 and 31); but it is especially in those of Assurbanipal (7th century), that the animal becomes so conspicuous.

[188] On the subject of these great hunts and their arrangements, see RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. pp. 505–512. The custom is still kept up in Eastern countries, and their _personnel_ is pretty much the same as it was in antiquity. See CHARDIN, _Voyage en Perse_ (Langles’ edition), vol. iii. p. 399; and ROUSSELET, _L’Inde des Rajahs_, pp. 202, 464, 468.

[189] These caged lions are only found in the bas-reliefs of Assurbanipal. The number of lions killed between the eleventh and seventh centuries B.C. must have been something extraordinary. Tiglath-Pileser I. boasts in one of his inscriptions of having done eight hundred lions to death. In time they must have become rare in Assyria. They must then have been brought from Chaldæa or Susiana, where they have always been more abundant, and transported to the north in carts, cages and all, there to afford sport for the king. In our day lions are hardly to be found higher up the Tigris than Bagdad; but on the Euphrates they occur much farther north, as far as Bir and all over the valley of the Khabour (LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 48). They are most numerous in the marshes of the lower Euphrates, where they were hunted in boats by the kings of Assyria (RAWLINSON, _The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. i. pp. 361 and 508). Most of the lions of Mesopotamia have very little mane, but a few have been encountered here and there in which that feature is largely developed. These seem to have been chosen as models by the Assyrian artists.

[190] In one single series of these reliefs, there are eleven lions killed and seven terribly wounded.

[191] The king sometimes found himself engaged with a lion at the closest quarters. In an inscription on one of these reliefs, Assurbanipal thus expresses himself. “I, Assurbanipal, king of the nations, king of Assyria, fighting on foot in my great courage with a lion of terrifying size, I seized him by the ear(!), and, in the name of Assur and Istar, goddess of war, I put an end to his life with the lance I held in my hand.” (FOX TALBOT in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. xix. p. 272).

[192] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 487. As to the part played by the lion in the ceremonies of the present court of Abyssinia, see GEORGES PERROT, _Les Fouilles de M. de Sarzec en Chaldée_, pp. 532, 534, of the _Revue des deux Mondes_ for October 1, 1882.

[193] The same rock may be identified in the fragments from Tello. There is a kind of cylindrical base in the Louvre, which appears to have been cut from a material differing in no respect from that of the object figured above. Lions’ heads appear upon it also.

[194] Upon the employment of the head and paws of the lion as an ornament, see also LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. ii. p. 301.

[195] In the inventory this monument is described as acquired in Syria, that is to say it was bought from M. Peretié, at Beyrout. M. Peretié was a well-known collector, and objects found in Mesopotamia were continually brought to him from Mossoul, Bagdad, and Bassorah. There can be no doubt as to the origin of this little monument; the execution is certainly Chaldæan or Assyrian. The same monster, rampant, is to be found on the Assyrian cylinder described by M. Lenormant under the title, _Le Dieu-lune délivré de l’Attaque des mauvais Esprits_ (_Gazette archéologique_, 1878, p. 20).

[196] As to where this colossus was found, see LAYARD, _Nineveh_, vol. i. p. 68.

[197] DE LONGPERIER, _Deux bronzes Antiques de Van_ (in his _Œuvres_, vol. i. pp. 275–278).

[198] In de Longperier’s reproduction of one of these figures, the ring attached to its back is shown.

[199] G. PERROT, _Les Fouilles de M. de Sarzec en Chaldée_, in the _Revue des deux Mondes_, for October 1, 1882. A methodical account of the whole enterprise will be found in a forthcoming work, which will bear for title: _Découvertes en Chaldée_, par M. E. DE SARZEC, _ouvrage publié par les soins de la conservation des antiquités orientales au Musée du Louvre_. Its quarto size will make it a more convenient work than those of Botta and Place. The illustrations will be produced by the Dujardin heliogravure process.

[200] Saïd-Hassan and Chatra, of which we have made use to give some approximate idea as to where Tello is situated, are marked upon the map given by LOFTUS (_Travels and Researches_, &c.).

[201] Vol. I. Chap. I. § 4.

[202] M. OPPERT believes that he has discovered in the inscriptions of Gudea, proof that the stone he employed came from Egypt. We cannot attempt to discuss the phrases which seem to him to bear that sense. We have some difficulty, however, in believing either that they took the trouble to transport such ponderous blocks across the desert, or that they sent them on a voyage round the whole peninsula of Arabia, a voyage that must have lasted some months, and that when similar materials were within reach. See what Mr. TAYLOR says about the district which is called _Hedjra_ (heap of stones, from _Hadjar_, stone), from the numerous masses of black granite that may be found there. This district is almost opposite _Schenafieh_, not far from _Bahr-ul-nejef_ (_Notes on Abou-Sharein_, p. 404, of vol. xv, of the Royal Asiatic Society’s _Journal_).

[203] HEUZEY, _Les Fouilles de la Chaldée_, p. 16 (extracted from the _Revue archéologique_ for January, 1881).

[204] Perhaps we should rather give the Chaldæan artist the credit of having produced a not untruthful bird’s-eye view. The bodies in the sepulchre are evidently stretched side by side, and they diminish in size from front to back, as their distance from the eye of the spectator increases. The two living men are mounting upon the edge, or wall, of the grave, an edge such as the tomb figured on p. 358 of Vol. I. (Fig. 164) must have had before its lid was put on. In these two figures there is an unmistakable attempt to give the effect of distance in varying their size. A curious detail in this relief is the post with a rope knotted round it that appears in the lower left hand corner.--Ed.

[205] It has been thought that the inscriptions contain proof, that, during the period, to which this primitive art belongs, Sirtella was the capital of a small independent kingdom, while the title of Gudea (_patési_, or governor) would seem to show that in his time it formed part of a larger state. Gudea can only have been a great feudatory; his position must have been similar to the nome princes in Egypt. HEUZEY, in the _Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions_ for 18 August, 1882.

[206] A tenth statue of Gudea, very much mutilated, is not yet exhibited. There is also the lower part of a small seated statue, without inscription.

[207] The great seated statue that occupies the middle of the room is five feet three inches in height, and has no head. One of the standing statues is four feet eight inches high. The one figured in our Plate VI. is only four feet two inches. The small statue called the architect (Fig. 96) is three feet one inch. It will be seen that some of these figures are over, and some under, life-size; one only, if we allow for the head, will correspond with what we may call the height of a man.

[208] Letter from M. de Sarzec read to the Académie des Inscriptions on the 2nd December, 1881 (reprinted in HEUZEY, _Fouilles de Chaldée_).

[209] On the knees of these seated figures we find the scale, the stylus and the plan of a fortified city that we explained on pages 327 and 328 of our first volume.

[210] HEUZEY, _Les Fouilles de Chaldée_, p. 12.

[211] Some may be inclined to think that the bald head may once have been protected by a covering cut from a separate block. This idea was suggested to us by the existence in the British Museum of a kind of wig of black stone (Nimroud Gallery, case H). It is carved to imitate hair, and, in front, has a kind of crest, the whole being cut from one piece of stone. It may have been used to surmount a limestone figure, and the contrast between the light colour of the one material, and the blackness of the other would be neither unpleasant nor unfitting. In another case (A) of the same gallery, we find beards and wigs made some of glass, others of a sandy frit imitating lapis-lazuli. The use of these disconnected pieces must then have been very widespread. But we doubt whether the Tello head ever had such a covering, because that part of its surface which would in such a case have been hidden from sight, is finished with the same care as all the rest. If the artist had included a wig in his calculations, would he have taken the pains he did with the modelling and polishing of the cranium?

[212] In the sculptures representing the erection of Sennacherib’s palace, many of the workmen have their heads protected from the sun by a turban resembling that of the Tello statue. This can hardly be clearly seen in small scale reproductions (Vol. I. Figs. 151 and 152), but LAYARD gives two of these heads on the original scale, for the express purpose of calling attention to their singular head-dress (_Monuments_, series ii. plate 16).

[213] Here M. HEUZEY answers M. Ménant, who thought he could discover in these two heads that the sculptor’s models had not been Semites, but belonged to the primitive race, of Turanians, no doubt, by whom the Chaldæan civilization was founded (_Les Fouilles de M. de Sarzec en Mesopotamia_, in the number for December, 1880, of the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_).

[214] HEUZEY, _Les Fouilles_, &c., p. ii.

[215] HEUZEY, _Les Fouilles de Chaldée_, pp. 13, 14.

[216] DE LONGPÉRIER, _Musée Napoléon III._, plate 2.

[217] _Art in Ancient Egypt_, vol. ii. fig. 271.

[218] HEUZEY, _Catalogue_, p. 32.

[219] HEUZEY, _Les Fouilles de la Chaldée_, p. 15.

[220] We may give as an instance the very small fragment of a relief in white stone, representing the Indian humped bull, the _zebu_, which has also been met with in the Assyrian bas-reliefs. The treatment is very fine.

[221] See DE LONGPERIER, _Monuments antiques de la Chaldée decouverts et rapportés par M. de Sarzec_ (_Œuvres_, vol. i. p. 335). The learned archæologist, of whom the writing of this paper was one of the last occupations, saw in this fragment evidence of worship rendered to the great rivers that watered and fertilized Mesopotamia; the double stream of water is the symbol of _Naharaim_, or “the two rivers,” a symbol whose presence in other objects from the same region he points out.

[222] LOFTUS (_Travels_, p. 116), describes a statue of black granite that he found at Hammam in lower Chaldæa. So far as we can tell from his short description, it must bear no slight resemblance to the Tello statues. The right shoulder was bare and had an inscription engraved upon it. The rest of the figure was clothed, and the hands were crossed upon the knees. The head was missing. At Warka the same traveller saw a bas-relief representing a man striking an animal; it was of basalt and was broken into several pieces. Among the objects acquired in 1877 by the British Museum, I find mentioned “a fragment of black granite or basalt, which seems to belong to a statue of Hammourabi, king of Babylon about 1,500 years before our era.” (_Account of the Income and Expenditure of the British Museum for 1878._) Is not this the broken statue which now figures in the gallery under the name of Gudea? At the first moment the inscription may not have been readily deciphered; the summary report presented to Parliament seems, indeed, to name Hammourabi with some hesitation.

[223] This type comes from Tello. Among the statuettes found there by M. de Sarzec, there were some in which it was reproduced, but they were all inferior to the example figured above. LAYARD found statuettes inspired by the same motive in a mound near Bagdad (_Discoveries_, p. 477).

[224] HEUZEY, _Catalogue_, p. 30.

[225] _Ibid._ p. 35.

[226] LAYARD found this type near Bagdad (_Discoveries_, p. 477), and LOFTUS encountered a great number of examples in his explorations at Susa (_Travels_, &c., p. 379). Those brought by him to London are quite similar to the statuette in the Louvre that we have chosen for reproduction (HEUZEY, _Catalogue_, p. 32).

[227] In the case of the _Caillou Michaux_, this has been clearly established by M. OPPERT (_Expédition scientifique_, vol. i. pp. 253, 254). He remarks that the betrothed of the person who had caused the stone to be cut, is spoken of as a “native of the town of Sargon;” so that the stone must be later than the end of the eighth century, B.C. And all the monuments belonging to this class bear such a strong mutual resemblance, that their dates cannot be very widely separated. They are reproduced on a large scale, both texts and figures, in the _Cuneiform inscriptions of Western Asia_, vol. iii. plates 41–45, and vol. iv. plates 41–43. We have reproduced two, in vol. i. fig. 10, and above, fig. 43.

[228] According to MILLIN, who was the first to draw attention to this monument, its material is a black marble; it would be a mistake to call it basalt (_Monuments antique inedits_, vol. i. p. 60, note 6). The inscription on the _Caillou Michaux_ has been translated by OPPERT (_Chronologie des Assyriens et des Babylonians_, p. 40), and by FOX TALBOT in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. xviii. pp. 53–75. [There is a cast of this _Caillou_ in the Assyrian Side Room at the British Museum.--ED.]

[229] The weight of these objects was in itself sufficient to prevent them being easily removed. The _Caillou Michaux_ weighs rather more than 70 lbs.

[230] HEUZEY, _Catalogue_, p. 32.

[231] Ἔστι δὲ τοῦ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι ἱροῦ καὶ ἄλλος κάτω νηός, ἔνθα ἄγαλμα μέγα τοῦ Διὸς ἔνι κατήμενον χρύσεον (i. 183).

[232] Ἐπ’ ἄκρας τῆς ἀναβάσεως τρία κατέσκευασεν ἀγάλματα χρυσὰ σφυρήλατα, Διός, Ἥρας, Ῥέας. DIODORUS, ii. ix. 5–8.

[233] _The Five Great Monarchies_, &c., vol. ii. p. 79.

[234] See _ante_.

[235] LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plate 5.

[236] For the reasons which led him to take this step, see the Introduction to the first series of plates published in the _Monuments_.

[237] The original arrangement of these things is shown in the second series of LAYARD’S _Monuments_, plate 4.

[238] We have round-headed steles of Assurnazirpal, of Shalmaneser II., of Samas-vul II., and of Sargon. Those of other princes are figured in the reliefs. In the Balawat gates we find Shalmaneser erecting them wherever his conquests led him (plate 12).

[239] We have not copied the uniform dark green tint forced upon the English publication by the necessity for printing in one colour. We have borrowed from the fragments in the possession of M. Schlumberger the broken hues of the patina deposited upon the bronze by age, a patina which has, perhaps, been too much removed by the cleaning to which the pieces in London have been subjected.

[240] In page 3 of his Introduction, Mr. PINCHES speaks of a “crocodile and a young hippopotamus.” I do not think that either of those animals can ever have lived in the cold waters of Lake Van, which receives, in the spring, such a large quantity of melted snow.

On the other hand, the argument applied by M. Perrot to architectural forms (see vol. i. pp. 139 (note 2) and 395), may here be invoked by Mr. Pinches. It is more likely that the artist introduced such animals as were to be found in the rivers and meres of Mesopotamia, than that he ascertained how Lake Van was peopled before he began his work.--ED.

[241] In order that we might give two interesting subjects on a single page, we have here brought together two divisions that do not belong to the same band in the original.

[242] HERODOTUS, i. 184.

[243] In repeating this hypothesis we have followed Professor RAWLINSON (_The Five Great Monarchies_, vol. ii. pp. 119–121); to us it appears worthy of extreme respect.

[244] See above, page 40.

[245] See also LAYARD, _Monuments_, first series, plates 57–67.

[246] Among the reliefs in which the transport of the materials for Sargon’s palace is represented, there is one which shows timber being dragged down to the Phœnician coast. Here the sea is no longer indicated merely by sinuous lines and a few fishes as in most of the earlier reliefs; there are all kinds of animals, shells, turtles, crabs, frogs, and even sea-serpents (BOTTA, _Monument de Ninive_, plate 34). In one place we find a wooded hill, with trees still of indeterminate form (plate 78). In another we may recognize pines in the forest traversed by the Assyrian cavalry (plates 108–113); birds fly among the branches and several among them fall pierced with the arrows of the hunters. Other trees bear fruit (plate 114). Partridges run upon the slopes of the hill. See also in the basalt reliefs from the building we have called a temple, a coniferous tree of some kind, probably a cypress, the general form of which is very well rendered (PLACE, _Ninive_, plate 48).

[247] This stele now belongs to the Berlin Museum. It has recently been the subject of an important work by a learned German Assyriologist, Herr SCHRADER (_Die Sargonstele des Berliner Museums_, in the _Abhandlungen_ of the Berlin Academy for 1881). He gives a translation of the inscription, with a commentary, showing the date of the stele to be 707, or the fifteenth year of Sargon’s reign.

[248] These lions are figured by LAYARD, Monuments, first series, vol. i. p. 128. Their inscriptions are brought together in a single plate in the _Discoveries_, p. 601. The Aramaic texts will be published in the _Corpus inscriptionum Semiticorum_, in the first instalment of the part devoted to Aramaic inscriptions.

These lions of Khorsabad and Nimroud may be compared, both for type and use, to the bronze lion found at Abydos, on the Hellespont, in 1860. M. DE VOGUÉ has made us acquainted with the latter in the pages of the _Revue archéologique_ for January, 1862. His article, which contains a reproduction both of the monument as a whole and of its inscription, and an explanation of the latter, has been reprinted in the _Mélanges d’archéologie orientale_ (8vo. 1868, pp. 179–196). Mr. NORRIS has published a special study of the weights in the British Museum (_On the Assyrian and Babylonian Weights_, in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. xvi. p. 215).

[249] Botanists are of opinion that the conventional representations of the marsh vegetation suggests the horse-grass, or shave-grass (prêle), rather than the _arundo-donax_, in which the leaves are longer and thinner.

[250] See LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plates 12 and 13.

[251] LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plates 14, 15.

[252] LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plate 17.

[253] Sennacherib caused his sculptors to celebrate the campaign in which he subdued the peoples of Lower Chaldæa. Like the Arab of to-day, they took refuge when pursued among the marshes in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf (LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plate 25). The light, flat-bottomed boats, with their sharp prows, are shown pushing through the reeds, and bending them down into the water to clear a passage.

[254] The slabs taken from this corridor are now in the _Kouyundjik Gallery_ of the British Museum, and numbered from 37 to 43. See also LAYARD’S _Monuments_, second series, plates 7–9.

[255] See LAYARD, _Monuments_, second series, plates 47–49. &c.

[256] These sculptures were discovered and described for the first time by M. ROUET, the immediate successor of M. BOTTA, at Mossoul (_Journal Asiatique_, 1846, pp. 280–290). More detailed descriptions will be found in LAYARD, _Discoveries_, pp. 207–216, and in PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. pp. 161–164. The latest and most complete translation of the Bavian inscriptions, or rather of the one inscription that is repeated in three different places, has been given by M. POGNON, under the following title: _L’Inscription de Bavian, texte, Traduction et Commentaire philologique avec trois Appendices et un Glossaire_, 1 vol. 8vo. in two parts, 1879 and 1880 (in the _Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes-Études_).

[257] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 216.

[258] LAYARD tells us that near the entrance to the gorge, and under the alluvial earth carried down by the stream, he found the remains of carefully-built stone walls, but he is silent as to the character of the building to which they may have belonged. (_Discoveries_, p. 215.)

[259] See the vignette on page 214 of LAYARD’S _Discoveries_.

[260] PERROT and GUILLAUME, _Exploration archéologique de la Galatie_, vol. i. pp. 367–373, and vol. ii. plates 72–80.

[261] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 210.

[262] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 211.

[263] Mr. LAYARD intended to give accurate and complete drawings of all the bas-reliefs at Bavian. For that purpose he despatched to the valley a young artist named Bell, who had been sent out to him by the authorities of the British Museum. Unhappily, this young man was drowned while bathing in the torrent, in July, 1851. Before his death he seems only to have copied the great relief; hence, in LAYARD’S great work Bavian is represented only by the plate we have copied. In the _Discoveries_ a few additional sketches are given.

[264] Page 203.

[265] In the valley of the Nahr-el-Kelb, there are five or six Assyrian reliefs mingled with those of Egyptian origin. They may at once be distinguished from the works of the Rameses by their arched tops. The only one of which the inscriptions are still legible, is that of Esarhaddon (see _Monuments inédits de l’Institut de Correspondance archéologique_, 1858, plate 51, fig. F, and especially LEPSIUS, _Ægyptische Denkmæler_, part iii. plate 197, fig. D). Judging from their style and the historical information we possess, these steles may be attributed to Tiglath-Pilezer, Assurnazirpal, Shalmaneser II., and Sennacherib. The remaining figures must be referred to other princes. Quite lately Mr. BOSCAWEN has published an interesting article (_The Monuments and Inscriptions on the Rocks at Nahr-el-Kelb_) in the seventh volume of the _Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology_ (pp. 331–352). It is accompanied by a general view of the site, and a very careful plan of that part of the valley in which the Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions are to be found. Professor LORTET has also paid a recent visit to the valley. We are indebted to one of his photographs for our fig. 122 (_Tour du Monde_, 1882, p. 415). We should have expected to find traces of these Assyrian rock-sculptures on the shores of Lake Van, where the princes of Nineveh so often appeared as conquerors: so far, however, nothing beyond cuneiform inscriptions has been found. There are no royal effigies (SCHULZE, _Mémoire sur le Lac de Van_, in the _Journal Asiatique_ for April-June, 1840, and LAYARD, _Discoveries_, chapter xviii.).

[266] LAYARD, _Discoveries_, p. 369.

[267] PLACE, _Ninive_, vol. ii. p. 154.

[268] See vol. i. page 75, and fig. 13.