Chapter XV: Preface (15)

"When I uncovered the road paved with large flags of stone, which leads from the Scæan Gate to the Plain, the stones looked as new as if they had just been hewn. But since then, under the influence of the burning sun, the flags of the upper portion of the road, which have specially suffered from the conflagration that destroyed the city, are rapidly crumbling away, and will probably have quite disappeared in a few years. However, the flags of stone on the northwestern half of the road, which have been less exposed to the heat, may still last many centuries.

"In this day, closing the excavations at Ilium forever, I can not but fervently thank God for His great mercy, in that, notwithstanding the terrible danger to which we have been exposed owing to the continual hurricanes, during the last three years' gigantic excavations, no misfortune has happened, no one has been killed, and no one has been seriously hurt.

"In my last report I did not state the exact number of springs in front of the Ilium. I have now visited all the springs myself, and measured their distance from my excavations, and I can give the following account of them. The first spring, which is situated directly below the ruins of the ancient town-wall, is exactly 399 yards from my excavations; its water has a temperature of 60.8° Fahrenheit. It is enclosed to a height of six and-one-half feet by a wall of large stones joined with cement, nine and one-quarter feet in breadth, and in front of it there are two stone troughs for watering cattle. The second spring, which is likewise still below the ruins of the ancient town-wall, is exactly 793 yards distant from my excavations. It has a similar enclosure of large stones, seven feet high and five feet broad, and has the same temperature. But it is out of repair, and the water no longer runs through the stone pipe in the enclosure, but along the ground before it reaches the pipe. The double spring spoken of in my last report is exactly 1,033 yards from my excavations. It consists of two distinct springs, which run out through two stone pipes lying beside each other in the enclosure composed of large stones joined with earth, which rises to a height of seven feet and is twenty-three feet broad; its temperature is 62.6° Fahrenheit. In front of these two springs there are six stone troughs, which are placed in such a manner that the superfluous water always runs from the first trough through all the others. It is extremely probable that these are the two springs mentioned by Homer, beside which Hector was killed.

"'They (Hector and Achilles) in flight and pursuit,
They by the watch-tower, and beneath the wall
Where stood the wind-beat fig-tree, raced amain
Along the public road, until they reached
The fairly-flowing founts, whence issued forth,
From double source, Scamander's eddying streams.
One with hot current flows, and from beneath,
As from a furnace, clouds of steam arise;
'Mid Summer's heat the other rises cold
As hail, or snow, or water crystallized;
Beside the fountains stood the washing-troughs
Of well-wrought stone, where erst the wives of Troy
And daughters fair their choicest garments washed,
In peaceful times, ere came the sons of Greece.'

"In this new excavation I find four earthen pipes, from eighteen and three-quarters to twenty-two and one-quarter inches long, and from six and one-half to eleven and three-quarters inches thick, laid together for conducting water, which was brought from a distance of about seven miles from the upper Thymbrius. This river is now called the Kemar, from the Greek word kamara (vault), because an aqueduct of the Roman period crosses its lower course by a large arch. This aqueduct formerly supplied Ilium with drinking water from the upper portion of the river. But the Pergamus required special aqueducts, for it lies higher than the city.

"Unfortunately upon none of the articles of the Treasure of Priam are there found any inscriptions or any religious symbols except 100 idols of the Homeric 'owl-faced goddess Athene.' (Thea glaukopis Athene) which glitter upon the two diadems and the four ear-rings. These are, however, an undeniable proof that the Treasure belongs to the city and to the age of which Homer sings."

The question asked is: Has Schliemann found any inscriptions which throw the certain light of written testimony on the language, the history and social condition, the religion, science and literature of the old inhabitants of the hill, whose records form as yet no part of ancient history? Upon this point very little satisfaction can be given, yet the people of ancient Troy did have a written language. At a depth of twenty-six feet, in the royal palace, a vase with an inscription was found. One of the letters resembles the Greek P. This same letter occurs on a seal found at a depth of twenty-three feet; two other letters of this inscription occurred on one other terra-cotta, likewise found at a depth of twenty-three feet.

To Dr. Martin Haug belongs the honor of first deciphering the Trojan inscriptions on the above-mentioned vase. He, not without much research, interpreted it as a dedication "To the divine Sigo," a deity whose name was found in Sigeum. The transmutation, however, seemed forced; and, while Haug was right in his method, his results were pronounced at best,

"Fragments of broken words and thoughts,
Yet glimpses of the true."

Prof. T. Gomperz, of Vienna, after making one correction in Haug's reading, still found it unsatisfactory, till the thought struck him of reading it from right to left round the vase, instead of from left to right, when the confused syllables flashed, as by sudden crystallization, into the pure Greek, and read: "To the divine Prince."

Another inscription was found which Prof. Max Muller read as the very name of ILION. Others were found which are not as yet interpreted.

[Page Decoration]

NINEVEH AND BABYLON.

Far away from the highways of modern commerce and the tracks of ordinary travel lay a city buried in the sandy earth of a half-desert Turkish province, with no trace of its place of sepulture. Vague tradition said it was hidden somewhere near the river Tigris; but for a long series of ages its existence in the world was a mere name--a word. That name suggested the idea of an ancient capital of fabulous splendor and magnitude; a congregation of palaces and temples, encompassed by vast walls and ramparts--of "the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly; that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me," and which was to become "a desolation and dry like a wilderness."

More than two thousand years had it lain in its unknown grave, when a French _savant_ and a wandering scholar sought the seat of the once powerful empire, and searching till they found the dead city, threw off its shroud of sand and ruin, and revealed once more to an astonished and curious world the temples, the palaces, and the idols; the representations of war and the chase, of the cruelties and luxuries of the ancient Assyrians. The Nineveh of Scripture, the Nineveh of the oldest historians; the Nineveh--twin sister of Babylon--glorying in pomp and power, all traces of which were believed to be gone; the Nineveh in which the captive tribes of Israel had labored and wept, and against which the words of prophecy had gone forth, was, after a sleep of twenty centuries, again brought to light. The proofs of ancient splendor were again beheld by living eyes, and by the skill of draftsmen and the pen of antiquarian travelers made known and preserved to the world.

In the history of Jonah's visit, Nineveh is twice described as "that great city," and again as an "exceedingly great city of three days' journey."

The measurement assigned to Nineveh by the sacred writer applies, without doubt, to its circuit, and gives a circumference of about sixty miles.

None of the historical books of the Old Testament give any details respecting Nineveh. The prophets, however, make frequent incidental allusion to its magnificence, to the "fenced place," the "stronghold," the "valiant men and chariots," the "silver and gold," the "pleasant furniture," "carved lintels and cedar work." Zephaniah, who wrote about twenty-four years before the fall of Nineveh, says of it:

"This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly;
That said in her heart, 'I am, and there is none beside me.'"

The ruins of Nineveh were virtually unknown to the ancient classical writers, though we gather from all of them that it was one of the oldest, most powerful and most splendid cities in the world; that it perished utterly many hundred years before the Christian Era; and that after its fall Babylon became the capital of the Assyrian empire, which finally grew still greater and mightier. On examining their details, we find names confounded, incidents transposed, and chronology by turns confused, extended or inverted. Difficulties of another and more peculiar kind beset this path of inquiry, of which it will suffice to instance one illustration--proper names, those fixed points in history around which the achievements or sufferings of its heroes cluster, are constantly shifting in the Assyrian nomenclature; both men and gods being designated, not by a word composed of certain fixed sounds or signs, but by all the various expressions equivalent to it in meaning, whether consisting of a synonym or a phrase. Hence we find that the names furnished by classic authors generally have little or no analogy with the Assyrian, as the Greeks generally construed the proper names of other countries according to the genius of their own language, and not unfrequently translated the original name into it. Herodotus, however, though he mentions but one Assyrian king, gives his true name, Sennacherib.

The immense mounds of brick and rubbish which marked the presumed sites of Babylon and Nineveh had been used as quarries by the inhabitants of the surrounding country, from time immemorial, without disclosing to other eyes than those of the wild occupier of the soil the monuments they must have served to support or cover. Though carefully explored by Niebuhr and Claudius James Rich, no other traces of buildings than a few portions of walls, of which they could not understand the plan, had been presented; if, however, the investigations of these travelers produced few immediate results, the first-named certainly has the merit of being the first to break the ground, and by his intelligence, to have awakened the enterprise of others. Rich, who was the East India Company's resident at Baghdad, employed his leisure in the investigation of the antiquities of Assyria. He gave his first attention to Babylon, on which he wrote a paper, originally published in Germany--his countrymen apparently taking less interest in such matters than did the scholars of Vienna. In a note to a second memoir on Babylon, printed in London in 1818, we find Nineveh thus alluded to by Rich. He says: "Opposite the town of Mosul is an enclosure of rectangular form, corresponding with the cardinal points of the compass; the eastern and western sides being the longest, the latter facing the river. The area, which is now cultivated, and offers no vestiges of building, is too small to have contained a town larger than Mosul, but it may be supposed to answer to the palace of Nineveh. The boundary, which may be perfectly traced all round, now looks like an embankment of earth or rubbish, of small elevation; and has attached to it, and in its line, at several places, mounds of greater size and solidity. The first of these forms the southwest angle, and on it is built the village of Nebbi Younis, the prophet's tomb (described and delineated by Niebuhr as Nurica), where they show the tomb of the prophet Jonah, much revered by the Mohammedans. The next, and largest of all, is the one which may be supposed to be the monument of Ninus. It is situated near the centre of the western face of the enclosure, and is joined like the others by the boundary wall;--the natives call it Kouyunjik Tepe. Its form is that of a truncated pyramid, with regular steep sides and a flat top; it is composed, as I ascertained from some excavations, of stones and earth, the latter predominating sufficiently to admit of the summit being cultivated by the inhabitants of the village of Kouyunjik, which is built on it at the northeast extremity. The only means I had, at the time I visited it, of ascertaining its dimensions, was by a cord which I procured from Mosul. This gave 178 feet for the greatest height, 1,850 feet for the length of the summit east and west, and 1,147 for its breadth north and south.

This mound has revealed the grandest and most stupendous remains of ancient Neneveh. Within the boundaries of ancient walls there are many mounds and elevations. All of them are artificial and are caused by the remains of the ancient structures. Mound Nimroud is about four miles in circumference at its base, on the top of which is a great pyramid mound 777 feet in circumference and 144-1/2 feet high.

M. Botta distinctly traced the walls of an enclosure forming nearly a perfect square, two sides of which are 5,750 feet, the other 5,400, or rather more than a mile each way, all the four angles being right angles, which face the cardinal points. M. Botta commenced researches in the mound of Kouyunjik in 1842, and, meeting with little success, he abandoned his excavations in the following year.

Layard, in 1846, opened some trenches in the southern face of the mound, but, at that time, without any important results. At a subsequent period he made some inquiries respecting the bas-relief described by Rich, and the spot where it was discovered having been pointed out to him in the northern group of ruins, he opened trenches, but, not finding any traces of sculptures, discontinued his operations.

Upon completing his labors at Nimroud, in 1847, Layard determined on making some farther researches at Kouyunjik. He commenced at the southwestern corner, and not only discovered the remains of a palace, which had been destroyed by fire, but, within the short space of a month, had explored nine of its chambers. All the chambers were long and narrow, and the walls lined with bas-reliefs of larger size than most of those he had found at Nimroud. The slabs were not divided by bands of inscription, but were covered with figures scattered promiscuously over the entire surface, all the details being carefully and delicately executed. The winged human-headed bulls at the entrances resembled those found at Khorsabad and Persepolis in the forms of the head-dress, and feathered cap; and the costumes of the figures in general were also like those found at Khorsabad. The period of the palace was conjectured to be between those of Khorsabad and Nimroud. After Mr. Layard had left Mosul, Mr. Ross continued the excavations, and discovered several additional bas-reliefs--an entrance, which had been formed of four sphinxes, and a very large square slab, which he conjectured to be a dais or altar, like that found at Nimroud.

Here he found a chamber lined with sculptured slabs, divided, like those of Khorsabad and Nimroud, by bands of inscription. He also found, at the foot of the mound, a monument about three feet high, and rounded at the top, containing a figure with a long cuneiform inscription, and above it various sacred emblems. When discovered it was supported by brickwork, and near it was a sarcophagus in baked clay.

On the departure of Mr. Ross from Mosul the excavations were placed under the charge of Mr. Rassam, the English consul, with power to employ a small body of men, so as not to entirely abandon possession of the spot.

Layard says: "During a short period several discoveries of the greatest interest and importance were made, both at Kouyunjik and Nimroud. I will first describe the results of the excavations in the ruins opposite Mosul.

"Shortly before my departure for Europe, in 1848, the forepart of a human-headed bull of colossal dimensions had been uncovered on the east side of the Kouyunjik Palace. This sculpture then appeared to form one side of an entrance or doorway. The excavations had, however, been abandoned before any attempt could be made to ascertain the fact. On my return a tunnel, nearly 100 feet in length, was opened at right angles to the winged bull, but without coming upon any other remains but a pavement of square limestone slabs, which continued as far as the excavation was carried.

"On uncovering the bull, which was still partly buried in the rubbish, it was found that adjoining it were other sculptures, and that it formed part of an exterior facade. The upper half of the slab had been destroyed; upon the lower was part of the figure of the Assyrian Hercules strangling the lion, similar to that discovered between the bulls in the propylæa of Khorsabad, and now in the Louvre. The hinder part of the lion was still preserved. The legs, feet, and drapery of the god were in the boldest relief, and designed with great truth and vigor. Beyond this figure, in the same line, was a second bull. Then came a wide portal, guarded by a pair of winged bulls twenty feet long, and probably, when entire, more than twenty feet high, and two gigantic winged figures in low relief. Flanking them were two smaller figures, one above the other. Beyond this entrance the facade was continued by a group similar to that on the opposite side by a smaller entrance into the palace and by a wall of sculptured slabs; then all traces of building and sculpture ceased near the edge of a water-worn ravine.

"Thus, part of the facade of the southeast side of the palace, forming apparently the grand entrance to the edifice, had been discovered. Ten colossal bulls, with six human figures of gigantic proportions, altogether 180 feet in length, were here grouped together. Although the bas-reliefs to the right of the entrance had apparently been purposely destroyed with a sharp instrument, enough remained to allow me to trace their subject. They had represented the conquest of a district, probably part of Babylonia, watered by a broad river and wooded with palms, spearmen on foot in combat with Assyrian horsemen, castles besieged, long lines of prisoners, and beasts of burden carrying away the spoil. Amongst various animals brought as tribute to the conquerors could be distinguished a lion led by a chain. There were no remains whatever of the superstructure which once rose above the colossi, guarding this magnificent entrance.

"Although the upper part of the winged bulls was destroyed, fortunately the lower part, and, consequently, the inscriptions, had been more or less preserved. To this fact we owe the recovery of some of the most precious records of the ancient world.

"On the two great bulls forming the center entrance was one continuous inscription, injured in parts, but still so far preserved as to be legible almost throughout. It contained 152 lines. On the four bulls of the facade were two inscriptions, one inscription being carried over each pair, and the two being precisely of the same import. These two different inscriptions complete the annals of six years of the reign of Sennacherib, and contain numerous particulars connected with the religion of the Assyrians, their gods, their temples, and the erection of their palaces. We gather from them that, in the third year of his reign, Sennacherib turned his arms against Merodach-Baladan, king of Babylon, whom he entirely defeated, capturing his cities and a large amount of spoil. The fourth year appears to have been chiefly taken up with expeditions against the inhabitants of the mountainous regions to the north and east of Assyria. In the fifth he crossed the Euphrates into Syria, the inhabitants of which country are called by their familiar Biblical name of Hittites. He first took possession of Phoenicia, which was abandoned by its King Luliya (the Eululæus of the Greeks). He then restored to his throne Padiya, or Padi, king of Ekron, and a tributary of Assyria, who had been deposed by his subjects and given over to Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem. The king of Ethiopia and Egypt sent a powerful army to the assistance of the people of Ekron, but it was entirely defeated by Sennacherib, who afterwards marched against Hezekiah, probably to punish him for having imprisoned Padiya. The inscriptions record this expedition, according to the translation of the late Dr. Hincks, in the following term:--'Hezekiah, king of Judah, who had not submitted to my authority, forty-six of his principal cities, and fortresses and villages depending upon them, of which I took no account, I captured and carried away their spoil. I _shut up_ (?) himself within Jerusalem, his capital city. The fortified towns, and the rest of his towns, which I spoiled, I severed from his country, and gave to the kings of Ascalon, Ekron, and Gaza, so as to make his country small. In addition to the former tribute imposed upon their countries, I added a tribute, the nature of which I fixed.' The next passage is somewhat illegible, but the substance of it appears to be, that he took from Hezekiah the treasure he had collected in Jerusalem, thirty talents of gold and eight hundred talents of silver, the treasures of his palace, besides his sons and his daughters, and his male and female servants or slaves, and brought them all to Nineveh. This city itself, however, he does not pretend to have taken.

"The translation of this passage by Sir H. Rawlinson varies in some particulars from that given in the text. It is as follows: 'Because Hezekiah, king of Judah, would not submit to my yoke I came up against him, and by force of arms, and by the might of my power I took forty-six of his fenced cities; and of the smaller towns which were scattered about I took and plundered a countless number. And from these places I captured and carried off, as spoil, 200,150 people, old and young, male and female, together with horses and mares, asses and camels, oxen and sheep, a countless multitude. And Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers around the city to hem him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape. * * * * Then upon this Hezekiah there fell the fear of the power of my arms, and he sent out to me the chiefs and the elders of Jerusalem with thirty talents of gold and eight hundred talents of silver, and divers treasures, a rich and immense booty. * * * * All these things were brought to me at Nineveh, the seat of my government, Hezekiah having sent them by way of tribute, and as a token of his submission to my power.'

"There can be no doubt that the campaign against the cities of Palestine, recorded in the inscriptions of Sennacherib in this palace, is that described in the Old Testament; and it is of great interest, therefore, to compare the two accounts, which will be found to agree in the principal incidents mentioned to a very remarkable extent. In the Second Book of Kings it is said--'Now, in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib, king of Assyria, come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them. And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Assyria, to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me; that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off [_the gold from_] the doors of the temple of the Lord, and [_from_] the pillars which Hezekiah, king of Judah, had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.'"

When Mr. Layard revisited Kouyunjik in 1849, there were no vestiges of the sculptured walls discovered two years previously. The more recent trenches, however, dug under the superintendence of Mr. Ross, were still open; and the workmen employed by direction of the British Museum had run tunnels along the walls within the mound, to save the trouble of clearing away the soil, which had accumulated to a depth of thirty feet above the ruins. Under the direction of Layard, the excavations were resumed with great spirit, and before the lapse of many weeks, several chambers had been entered, and numerous bas-reliefs discovered. One hall, 124 feet by 90 feet, appears, says Layard, "to have formed a center, around which the principal chambers in this part of the palace were grouped. Its walls had been completely covered with the most elaborate and highly-finished sculptures. Unfortunately, all the bas-reliefs, as well as the gigantic monsters at the entrances, had suffered more or less from the fire which had destroyed the edifice; but enough of them still remained to show the subject, and even to enable him, in many places, to restore it entirely."

Continuing his discoveries in the mound, Layard "opened no less than seventy-one halls and chambers, also passages, whose walls, almost without an exception, had been paneled with slabs of sculptured alabaster, recording the wars, the triumphs, and the great deeds of the Assyrian king. By a rough calculation, about 9,880 feet, or nearly two miles of bas-reliefs, with twenty-seven portals formed by colossal winged bulls and lion sphinxes, were uncovered in that part alone of the building explored during his researches. The cut on page 435 shows some of them. The greatest length of the excavations was about 720 feet, the greatest breadth about 600 feet. The pavement of the chambers was from twenty to thirty-five feet below the surface of the mound. The measurements merely include that part of the palace actually excavated."

EXPLANATION OF CUT.

1.} Figures from the portal of the palace of Sennacherib, having
2.} the forms of winged bulls with human heads, bearing crowns.
3. King Sennacherib on his throne. A sculpture found at Nimroud,
dating from the 7th century Before Christ.
4. A king on the hunt.
5. The storming of a fortress. In the foreground are two
warriors clad in armor, helmeted and heavily armed with
swords and spears.
6.} Vases of glass and alabaster engraved with the word Sargon.
7.} From Nimroud.
8. Vessel of glazed earthenware--, found at Babel.
9. Bronze drinking cup ornamented with the head of an animal.
10. Lamp of earthenware.
11. Stuff woven in patterns of Assyrian style. From relief at
Nimroud.
12. Table formed of fragments of sculptures found at Nimroud.
13.}
14.} Swords.
15.}
16. Bent sword.
17. Double edged ax.
18. Spear.
19. Quiver filled with arrows and elaborately sculptured.
20. Bow.
21.}
22.} Daggers and knife in one case.
23.}
24. Helmet.
25. Round shield such as was borne by foot soldiers.
26. Breastplate of a knight of high degree.
27. Parasol found at Nimroud. (Now in British Museum.)
28. Ear-ring of gold.
29.}
30.}
31.} Bracelets of gold.
32.}
33.{
34.{ Diadems.
35. Wall painting representing lions.]

Most of the sculptures discovered in this hall and group of chambers have been deposited in the British Museum.

For the more recent collection of sculptures which have been brought to light, we are indebted to Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, a native of Mosul, and a friend and colleague of Layard; and to Mr. William Kennet Loftus, the agent of the Assyrian excavation fund. In 1852, Mr. Rassam was appointed by the Trustees of the British Museum to take charge of the excavations at Nineveh. For more than a year his researches were nearly fruitless, when, at length, just as his appointment was about to terminate, he turned again to a previously-abandoned trench in the north side of the mound, and was almost immediately rewarded by the discovery of numerous chambers and passages, covered with a variety of bas-reliefs in an excellent state of preservation, having suffered less injury from fire than those of the other palaces. In one room was a lion hunt, in a continuous series of twenty-three slabs, with but one interval. The other slabs represented exteriors of palaces, gardens, battles, sieges, processions, etc., the whole forming the decorations of what must have been a splendid palace.

Subsequently, in 1854, at the instance of Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. Loftus and his coadjutor, Mr. Boutcher, transferred their operations from South Babylonia to Nineveh. At first Mr. Loftus' excavations were unsuccessful, but about the beginning of August he discovered the remains of a building on a level twenty feet lower than the palace that Mr. Rassam was exploring, and which proved to be a lower terrace of the same building, even more highly elaborated and in better preservation than those previously discovered in the ruins. At the entrance of an ascending passage there was also found a "mass of solid masonry--apparently the pier of an arch--the springing of which is formed by projecting horizontal layers of limestone."

Mr. Loftus, in his Report of the 9th of October, observes: "The excavations carried on at the western angle of the North Palace, Kouyunjik, continue to reveal many interesting and important facts, and to determine several points which were previously doubtful.

"1. The existence of an outer basement wall of roughly cut stone blocks, supporting a mud wall, upon which white plaster still remains, and from which painted bricks have fallen. 2. At the corner of the palace, and at a considerable distance from the principal chambers, is an entrance hall, with column bases, precisely as we see them represented in the sculptures. 3. Above this entrance hall and its adjoining chambers, there was formerly another story, the first upper rooms yet discovered in Assyria. This, with its sculptured slabs, has fallen into the rooms below. 4. The various sculptures here disinterred are the works of four, if not five, different artists, whose styles are distinctly visible. It is evident that this portion of the edifice has been willfully destroyed, the woodwork burned, and the slabs broken to pieces. The faces of all the principal figures are slightly injured by blows of the ax."

This highly interesting series of bas-reliefs, which has now been placed in a lower chamber in the British Museum, consequently represents the siege and capture of Lachish, as described in the Second Book of Kings, and in the inscriptions on the human-headed bulls. Sennacherib himself is seen seated on his throne, and receiving the submission of the inhabitants of the city, whilst he had sent his generals to demand the tribute of payment from Hezekiah. The defenders of the castle walls and the prisoners tortured and crouching at the conqueror's feet are Jews, and the sculptor has evidently endeavored to indicate the peculiar physiognomy of the race, and the dress of the people.

The value of this discovery can scarcely be overrated. Whilst we have thus the representations of an event recorded in the Old Testament, of which consequently these bas-reliefs furnish a most interesting and important illustration, they serve to a certain extent to test the accuracy of the interpretation of the cuneiform inscriptions, and to remove any doubt that might still exist as to the identification of the King who built the palace on the mound of Kouyunjik with the Sennacherib of Scripture. Had these bas-reliefs been the only remains dug up from the ruins of Nineveh, the labor of the explorer would have been amply rewarded, and the sum expended by the nation on the excavations more than justified. They furnish, together with the inscriptions which they illustrate, and which are also now deposited in the national collection, the most valuable cotemporary historical record possessed by any museum in the world. They may be said to be the actual manuscript, caused to be written or carved by the principal actor in the events which it relates. Who would have believed it probable or possible, before these discoveries were made, that beneath the heap of earth and rubbish which marked the site of Nineveh, there would be found the history of the wars between Hezekiah and Sennacherib, written at the very time when they took place by Sennacherib himself and confirming even in minute details the Biblical record? He who would have ventured to predict such a discovery would have been treated as a dreamer or an impostor. Had it been known that such a monument really existed, what sum would have been considered too great for the precious record?

A few remarks are necessary on the architecture and architectural decorations, external and internal of the Assyrian palaces. The inscriptions on their walls, especially on those of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad, appear to contain important and even minute details not only as to their general plan and mode of construction, but even as to the materials employed for their different parts, and for the objects of sculpture and ornaments placed in them. (Capt. Jones calculated that the mound of Kouyunjik contains 14,500,000 tons of earth, and that its construction would have taken 10,000 men for twelve years.) This fact furnishes another remarkable analogy between the records of the Jewish and Assyrian kings. To the history of their monarchs and of their nation, the Hebrew chroniclers have added a full account of the building and ornaments of the temple and palaces of Solomon. In both cases, from the use of technical words, we can scarcely hope to understand, with any degree of certainty, all the details. It is impossible to comprehend, by the help of the description alone, the plan or appearance of the temple of Solomon. This arises not only from our being unacquainted with the exact meaning of various Hebrew architectural terms, but also from the difficulty experienced even in ordinary cases, of restoring from mere description an edifice of any kind. In the Assyrian inscriptions we labor, of course, under still greater disadvantages. The language in which they were written is as yet but very imperfectly known, and although we may be able to explain with some confidence the general meaning of the historical paragraphs, yet when we come to technical words relating to architecture, even with a very intimate acquaintance with the Assyrian tongue, we could scarcely hope to ascertain their precise signification. On the other hand, the materials, and the general plan of the Assyrian palaces are still preserved, whilst of the great edifices of the Jews, not a fragment of masonry, nor the smallest traces, are probably left to guide us. But, as Mr. Fergusson has shown, the architecture of the one people may be illustrated by that of the other. With the help of the sacred books, and of the ruins of the palaces of Nineveh, together with those of cotemporary and after remains, as well as from customs still existing in the East, we may, to a certain extent, ascertain the principal architectural features of the buildings of both nations.

Before suggesting a general restoration of the royal edifices of Nineveh, we shall endeavor to point out the analogies which appear to exist between their actual remains and what is recorded of the temple and palaces of Solomon. In the first place, as Sennacherib in his inscriptions declares himself to have done, the Jewish king sent the bearers of burdens and the hewers into the mountains to bring great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundations, which were probably artificial platforms, resembling the Assyrian mounds, though constructed of more solid materials. We have the remains of such a terrace or stage of stone masonry, perhaps built by King Solomon himself, at Baalbec. The enormous size of some of the hewn stones in that structure, and of those still remaining in the quarries, some of which are more than sixty feet long, has excited the wonder of modern travelers. The dimensions of the temple of Jerusalem, threescore cubits long, twenty broad, and thirty high, were much smaller than those of the great edifices explored in Assyria. Solomon's own palace, however, appears to have been considerably larger, and to have more nearly approached in its proportions those of the kings of Nineveh, for it was one hundred cubits long, fifty broad and thirty high. "The porch before the temple," twenty cubits by ten, may have been a propylæum, such as was discovered at Khorsabad in front of the palace. The chambers, with the exception of the oracle, were exceedingly small, the largest being only seven cubits broad, "for without, _in the wall_ of the house, he made numerous rests round about, that _the beams_ should not be fastened in the walls of the house." The words in italics are inserted in our version to make good the sense, and may consequently not convey the exact meaning, which may be, that these apartments were thus narrow in order that the beams might be supported without the use of pillars, a reason already suggested for the narrowness of the greater number of chambers in the Assyrian palaces. These smaller rooms appear to have been built round a large central hall called the oracle, the whole arrangement thus corresponding with the courts, halls, and surrounding rooms at Nimroud, Khorsabad, and Kouyunjik. The oracle was twenty cubits square, smaller far in dimensions than the Nineveh halls; but it was twenty cubits _high_--an important fact, illustrative of Assyrian architecture, for as the building itself was thirty cubits in height the oracle must not only have been much loftier than the adjoining chambers, but must have had an upper structure of ten cubits. Within it were the two cherubim of olive wood ten cubits high, with wings each five cubits long--"and he carved all the house around with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees, and open flowers, within and without." The cherubim have been described by Biblical commentators as mythic figures, uniting the human head with the body of a lion, or an ox, and the wings of an eagle. If for the palm trees we substitute the sacred trees of the Nineveh sculptures, and for the open flowers the Assyrian tulip-shaped ornament--objects most probably very nearly resembling each other--we find that the oracle of the temple was almost identical, in the general form of its ornaments, with some of the chambers of Nimroud and Khorsabad. In the Assyrian halls, too, the winged human-headed bulls were on the side of the wall, and their wings, like those of the cherubim, "touched one another in the midst of the house." The dimensions of these figures were in some cases nearly the same in the Jewish and Assyrian temples, namely, fifteen feet square. The doors were also carved with cherubim and palm trees, and open flowers; and thus, with the other parts of the building, corresponded with those of the Assyrian palaces. On the walls at Nineveh the only addition appears to have been the introduction of the human form and the image of the king, which were an abomination to the Jews. The pomegranates and lilies of Solomon's temple must have been nearly identical with the usual Assyrian ornament, in which, and particularly at Khorsabad, the promegranate frequently takes the place of the tulip and the cune.

But the description given by Josephus of the interior of one of Solomon's houses still more completely corresponds with and illustrates the chambers in the palaces of Nineveh. "Solomon built some of these (houses) with stones of ten cubits, and wainscoted the walls with other stones that were sawed, and were of great value, such as were dug out of the bowels of the earth, for ornaments of temples," etc. The arrangement of the curious workmanship of these stones was in three rows; but the fourth was pre-eminent for the beauty of its sculpture, for on it were represented trees and all sorts of plants, with the shadows caused by their branches and the leaves that hung down from them. These trees and plants covered the stone that was beneath them, and their leaves were wrought so wonderfully thin and subtle that they appeared almost in motion; but the rest of the wall, up to the roof, was plastered over, and, as it were, wrought over with various colors and pictures.

To complete the analogy between the two edifices, it would appear that Solomon was seven years building his temple, and Sennacherib about the same time in erecting his great palace at Kouyunjik.

The ceiling, roof, and beams of the Jewish temple were of cedar wood. The discoveries of the ruins at Nimroud show that the same precious wood was used in Assyrian edifices; and the king of Nineveh, as we learn from the inscriptions, sent men, precisely as Solomon had done, to cut it in Mount Lebanon. Fir was also employed in the Jewish buildings, and probably in those of Assyria.

In order to understand the proposed restoration of the palace at Kouyunjik from the existing remains, the reader must refer to the cut, on page 427, of the excavated ruins. It will be remembered that the building does not face the cardinal points of the compass. We will, however, assume, for convenience sake that it stands due north and south. To the south, therefore, it immediately overlooked the Tigris; and on that side rose one of the principal facades. The edifice must have stood on the very edge of the platform, the foot of which was at that time washed by the river, which had five massive staircases leading to the river. Although from the fact of there having been a grand entrance to the palace on the east side, it is highly probable that some such approach once existed on the west side, yet no remains whatever of it have been discovered. The northern facade, like the southern, was formed by five pairs of human-headed bulls, and numerous colossal figures, forming three distinct gateways.

The principal approach to the palace appears, however, to have been on the eastern side, where the great bulls bearing the annals of Sennacherib were discovered. In the cut we have been able, by the assistance of Mr. Fergusson, to give a restoration of this magnificent palace and entrances. Inclined ways, or broad flights of steps, appear to have led up to it from the foot of the platform, and the remains of them, consisting of huge squared stones, are still in the ravines, which are but ancient ascents, deepened by the winter rains of centuries. From this grand entrance direct access could be had to all the principal halls and chambers in the palace; that on the western face, as appears from the ruins, only opened into a set of eight rooms.

The chambers hitherto explored appear to have been grouped round three great courts or halls. It must be borne in mind, however, that the palace extends considerably to the northeast of the grand entrance, and that there may have been another hall, and similar dependent chambers in that part of the edifice. Only a part of the palace has been hitherto excavated, and we are not, consequently, in possession of a perfect ground-plan of it.

The general arrangement of the chambers at Kouyunjik is similar to that at Khorsabad, though the extent of the building is very much greater. The Khorsabad mound falls gradually to the level of the plain, and there are the remains of a succession of broad terraces or stages. Parts of the palace, such as the propylæa, were actually beneath the platform, and stood at some distance from it in the midst of the walled enclosure. At Kouyunjik, however, the whole of the royal edifice, with its dependent buildings, appears to have stood on the summit of the artificial mound, whose lofty perpendicular sides could only have been accessible by steps, or inclined ways. No propylæa, or other edifices connected with the palace, have as yet been discovered below the platform.

The inscriptions, it is said, refer to four distinct parts of the palace, three of which, inhabited by the women, seem subsequently to have been reduced to one. It is not clear whether they were all on the ground-floor, or whether they formed different stories. Mr. Fergusson, in his ingenious work on the restoration of the palaces of Nineveh, in which he has, with great learning and research, fully examined the subject of the architecture of the Assyrians and ancient Persians, endeavors to divide the Khorsabad palace, after the manner of modern Mussulman houses, into the Salamlik or apartments of the men, and the Harem, or those of the women. The division he suggests must, of course, depend upon analogy and conjecture; but it may, we think, be accepted as highly probable, until fuller and more accurate translations of the inscriptions than can yet be made may furnish us with some positive data on the subject. In the ruins of Kouyunjik there is nothing, as far as we are aware, to mark the distinction between the male and female apartments. Of a temple no remains have as yet been found at Kouyunjik, nor is there any high conical mound as at Nimroud and Khorsabad.

In all the Assyrian edifices hitherto explored we find the same general plan. On the four sides of the great courts or halls are two or three narrow parallel chambers opening one into the other. Most of them have doorways at each end leading into smaller rooms, which have no other outlet. It seems highly probable that this uniform plan was adopted with reference to the peculiar architectural arrangements required by the building, and we agree with Mr. Fergusson in attributing it to the mode resorted to for lighting the apartments.

Early excavators expressed a belief that the chambers received light from the top. Although this may have been the case in some instances, yet recent discoveries now prove that the Assyrian palaces had more than one story. Such being the case, it is evident that other means must have been adopted to admit light to the inner rooms on the ground-floor. Mr. Fergusson's suggestion, that the upper part of the halls and principal chambers was formed by a row of pillars supporting the ceiling and admitting a free circulation of light and air, appears to us to meet, to a certain extent, the difficulty. It has, moreover, been borne out by subsequent discoveries, and by the representation of a large building, apparently a palace, on one side of the bas-reliefs from Kouyunjik.

Although the larger halls may have been lighted in this manner, yet the inner chambers must have remained in almost entire darkness. And it is not improbable that such was the case, to judge from modern Eastern houses, in which the rooms are purposely kept dark to mitigate the great heat. The sculptures and decorations in them could then only be properly seen by torchlight. The great courts were probably open to the sky, like the courts of the modern houses of Mosul, whose walls are also adorned with sculptured alabaster. The roofs of the large halls must have been supported by pillars of wood or brick work. It may be conjectured that there were two or three stories of chambers opening into them, either by columns or by windows. Such appears to have been the case in Solomon's temple; for Josephus tells us that the great inner sanctuary was surrounded by small rooms, "over these rooms were other rooms, and others above them, equal both in their measure and numbers, and these reached to a height equal to the _lower part_ of the house, for the upper had no buildings about it." We have also a similar arrangement of chambers in the modern houses of Persia, in which a lofty central hall, called the Iwan, of the entire height of the building, has small rooms in two or three separate stories opening by windows into it, whilst the inner chambers have no windows at all, and only receive light through the door. Sometimes these side chambers open into a center court, as we have suggested may have been the case in the Nineveh palaces, and then a projecting roof of woodwork protects the carved and painted walls from injury by the weather. Curtains and awnings were no doubt suspended above the windows and entrances in the Assyrian palaces to ward off the rays of the sun.

Although the remains of pillars have hitherto been discovered in the Assyrian ruins, we now think it highly probable, as suggested by Mr. Fergusson, that they were used to support the roof. The modern Yezidi house, in the Sinjar, is a good illustration not only of this mode of supporting the ceiling, but of the manner in which light may have been admitted into the side chambers. It is curious, however, that no stone pedestals, upon which wooden columns may have rested, have been found in the ruins; nor have marks of them been found on the pavement. We can scarcely account for the entire absence of all such traces. However, unless some support of this kind were resorted to, it is impossible that the larger halls at Kouyunjik could have been covered in. The great hall, or house, as it is rendered in the Bible, of the forest of Lebanon was thirty cubits high, upon four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beams upon the pillars. The Assyrian kings, as we have seen, cut wood in the same forests as King Solomon; and probably used it for the same purpose, namely, for pillars, beams and ceilings. The dimensions of this hall, 100 cubits (about 150 feet) by 50 cubits (75 feet), very much resemble those of the center halls of the palaces of Nineveh. "The porch of pillars" was fifty cubits in length; equal, therefore, to the breadth of the hall, of which, we presume, it was a kind of inclosed space at the upper end, whilst "the porch for the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment * * * * covered with cedar wood from one side of the floor to the other," was probably a raised place within it, corresponding with a similar platform where the host and guests of honor are seated in a modern Eastern house. Supposing the three parts of the building to have been arranged as we have suggested, we should have an exact counterpart of them in the hall of audience of the Persian palaces. The upper part of the magnificent hall in which we have frequently seen the governor of Isfahan, was divided from the lower part by columns, and his throne was a raised place of carved headwork adorned with rich stuffs, ivory, and other precious materials. Suppliants and attendants stood outside the line of pillars, and the officers of the court within. Such also may have been the interior arrangements of the great halls in the Assyrian edifices.

We have already described the interior decorations of the Assyrian palaces, and have little more to add upon the subject. The walls of Kouyunjik were more elaborately decorated than those of Nimroud and Khorsabad. Almost every chamber explored there, and they amounted to about seventy, was paneled with alabaster slabs carved with numerous figures and with the minutest details. Each room appears to have been dedicated to some particular event, and in each, apparently, was the image of the king himself. In fact, the walls recorded in sculpture what the inscriptions did in writing--the great deeds of Sennacherib in peace as well as in war. It will be remarked that, whilst in other Assyrian edifices the king is frequently represented taking an active part in war, slaying his enemies, and fighting beneath a besieged city, Sennacherib is never represented at Kouyunjik otherwise than in an attitude of triumph, in his chariot or on his throne, receiving the captives and the spoil. Nor is he ever seen torturing his prisoners, or putting them to death with his own hand.

There were chambers, however, in the palace of Sennacherib, as well as in those at Nimroud and Khorsabad, whose walls were simply coated with plaster, like the walls of Belshazzar's palace at Babylon. Some were probably richly ornamented in color with figures of men and animals, as well as with elegant designs; or others may have been paneled with cedar wainscoting, as the chambers in the temple and palaces of Solomon, and in the royal edifices of Babylon. Gilding, too, appears to have been extensively used in decoration, and some of the great sphinxes may have been overlaid with gold, like the cherubim in Solomon's temple. The cut on page 445 gives a beautiful representation of the interior of the palaces. It is taken from the halls of the palace of Sennacherib.

At Kouyunjik, the pavement slabs were not inscribed as at Nimroud; but those between the winged bulls, at some of the entrances, were carved with an elaborate and very elegant pattern. The doors were probably of wood, gilt, and adorned with precious materials, like the gates of the temple of Jerusalem, and their hinges appear to have turned in stone sockets, some of which were found in the ruins. To ward off the glare of an Eastern sun, hangings or curtains, of gay colors and of rich materials, were probably suspended to the pillars supporting the ceiling, or to wooden poles raised for the purpose, as in the palaces of Babylon and Shushan.