DISCOVERY OF GRAND ENTRANCE TO THE PALACE OF KOUYUNJIK.--OF THE NAME
OF SENNACHERIB IN THE INSCRIPTIONS.--THE RECORDS OF THAT KING IN THE
INSCRIPTIONS ON THE BULLS.--AN ABRIDGED TRANSLATION OF THEM.--NAME OF
HEZEKIAH.--ACCOUNT OF SENNACHERIB'S WARS WITH THE JEWS.--DR. HINCKS
AND COL. RAWLINSON.--THE NAMES OF SARGON AND SHALMANESER.--DISCOVERY
OF SCULPTURES AT KOUYUNJIK, REPRESENTING THE SIEGE OF
LACHISH.--DESCRIPTION OF THE SCULPTURES.--DISCOVERY OF CLAY SEALS--OF
SIGNETS OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN KINGS.--CARTOUCHE OF SABACO.--NAME OF
ESSARHADDON.--CONFIRMATION OF HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THE BIBLE.--ROYAL
CYLINDER OF SENNACHERIB.
During the month of December, 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.
I must remind the reader that, 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, and it is so placed
in the plan of the ruins accompanying my former work.[48] The excavations
had, however, been abandoned before any attempt could be made to ascertain
the fact. On my return, I had directed the workmen to dig out the opposite
sculpture. A tunnel, nearly 100 feet in length, was accordingly opened at
right angles to the bull, first discovered, but without coming upon any
other remains than a pavement of square limestone slabs which stretched
without interruption as far as the excavation was carried. I consequently
discontinued the cutting, as it was evident that no entrance could be of
so great a width, and as there were not even traces of building in that
direction.
The workmen having been then ordered to uncover 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 next slab had been destroyed, but the lower still remained, and
enabled me to restore the figure of the Assyrian Hercules strangling the
lion, similar to that discovered between the bulls in the propylaea of
Khorsabad, and now in the Louvre. The hinder part of the animal was still
preserved. Its claws grasped the huge limbs of the giant, who lashed it
with the serpent-headed scourge. 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. The facade then
opened into a wide portal, guarded by a pair of winged bulls, twenty feet
long, and probably, when entire, more than twenty feet high. Forming the
angle between them and the outer bulls were gigantic winged figures in low
relief, and flanking them were two smaller figures, one above the other.
Beyond this entrance was a group similar to and corresponding with that on
the opposite side, also leading to a smaller entrance into the palace, and
to a wall of sculptured slabs; but here all traces of building and
sculpture ceased, and we found ourselves near the edge of the water-worn
ravine.
Thus a facade of the south-east 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, were here grouped
together, and the length of the whole, without including the sculptured
walls continued beyond the smaller entrances, was 180 feet. 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.
The bulls, as I have already observed, were all more or less injured. The
same convulsion of nature--for I can scarcely attribute to any human
violence the overthrow of these great masses--had shattered some of them
into pieces, and scattered the fragments amongst the ruins. Fortunately,
however, the lower parts of all, and, consequently, the inscriptions, had
been more or less preserved. To this fact we owe the recovery of some of
the most precious records with which the monuments of the ancient world
have rewarded the labors of the antiquary.
On the great bulls forming the centre portal of the grand 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 of precisely the same import. These two
distinct records contain the annals of six years of the reign of
Sennacherib, besides numerous particulars connected with the religion of
the Assyrians, their gods, their temples, and the erection of their
palaces, all of the highest interest and importance.
In my first work I pointed out the evidence, irrespective of the
inscriptions, which led me to identify the builder of the great palace of
Kouyunjik with Sennacherib.[49] Dr. Hincks, in a memoir on the
inscriptions of Khorsabad, read in June, 1849, but published in the
"Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy"[50] in 1850, was the first to
detect the name of this king in the group of arrowheaded characters at the
commencement of nearly all the inscriptions, and occurring on all the
inscribed bricks from the ruins of this edifice. Subsequent discoveries
confirmed this identification, but it was not until August, 1851, that the
mention of any actual event recorded in the Bible, and in ancient profane
history, was detected on the monuments, thus removing all further doubt as
to the king who had raised them.
Shortly after my return to England my copies of these inscriptions having
been seen by Colonel Rawlinson, he announced in the Athenaeum of the 23d
August, 1851, that he had found in them notices of the reign of
Sennacherib, "which placed beyond the reach of dispute his historic
identity," and he gave a recapitulation of the principal events recorded
on the monuments, the greater part of which are known to us through
history either sacred or profane. These inscriptions have since been
examined by Dr. Hincks, and translated by him independently of Colonel
Rawlinson. He has kindly assisted me in giving the following abridgment of
their contents.
The inscriptions begin with the name and titles of Sennacherib. It is to
be remarked that he does not style himself "King, or rather High Priest,
of Babylon," as his father had done in the latter part of his reign, from
which it may be inferred that at the time of engraving the record he was
not the immediate sovereign of that city, although its chief may have paid
tribute to him, and, no doubt, acknowledged his supremacy. He calls
himself "the subduer of kings from the upper sea of the setting sun (the
Mediterranean) to the lower sea of the rising sun (the Persian Gulf)." In
the first year of his reign he defeated Merodach Baladan, a name with
which we are familiar, for it is this king who is mentioned in the Old
Testament as sending letters and a present to Hezekiah[51], when the
Jewish monarch in his pride showed the ambassadors "the house of his
precious things, the silver and the gold, and the spices, and the precious
ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his
treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominions that
Hezekiah showed them not;" an act of vain boasting which led to the
reproof of the prophet Isaiah, and to his foretelling that all this
wealth, together with the descendants of its owner, should be carried away
as spoil to the very city from which these ambassadors came. Merodach
Baladan is called king of Kar-Duniyas, a city and country frequently
mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions, and comprising the southernmost
part of Mesopotamia, near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates,
together with the districts watered by those two rivers, to the borders of
Susiana. This king, with the help of his Susianian allies, had recently
recovered Babylon, from which Sargon, Sennacherib's father, had expelled
him in the twelfth year of his reign. The battle appears to have been
fought considerably to the north of that city. The result was that
Sennacherib totally defeated Merodach Baladan, who fled to save his life,
leaving behind him his chariots, _wagons_ (?), horses, mares, _asses_ (?),
camels, and _riding horses with their trappings for war_ (?). The
victorious king then advanced to Babylon, where he plundered the palace,
carrying off a vast treasure of gold, silver, vessels of gold and silver,
precious stones, men and women servants, and a variety of objects which
cannot yet be satisfactorily determined. No less than seventy-nine cities
(or fortresses), all the castles of the Chaldaeans, and eight hundred and
twenty small towns (or villages), dependent upon them, were taken and
spoiled by the Assyrian army, and the great wandering tribes "that dwelt
around the cities of Mesopotamia," the Syrians (Arameans), and Chaldaeans,
&c., &c., were brought under subjection. Sennacherib having made
Belib[52], one of his own officers, sovereign of the conquered provinces,
proceeded to subdue the powerful tribes who border on the Euphrates and
Tigris, and amongst them the Hagarenes and Nabathaeans. From these
wandering people he declares that he carried off to Assyria, probably
colonising with them, as was the custom, new-built towns and villages,
208,000 men, women, and children, together with 7200 horses and mares,
11,063 _asses_ (?), 5230 camels, 120,100 oxen, and 800,500 sheep. It is
remarkable that the camels should bear so small a proportion to the oxen
and asses in this enumeration of the spoil. Amongst the Bedouin tribes,
who now inhabit the same country, the camels would be far more
numerous.[53] It is interesting to find, that in those days, as at a later
period, there was both a nomade and stationary population in Northern
Arabia.
In the same year, Sennacherib received a great tribute from the conquered
Khararah, and subdued the people of Kherimmi, whom he declares to have
been long rebellious (neither people can as yet be identified), rebuilding
(? or consecrating) the city of the latter, and sacrificing on the
occasion, for its dedication to the gods of Assyria, one ox, ten sheep,
ten goats or lambs, and twenty other animals.
In the second year of his reign, Sennacherib appears to have turned his
arms to the north of Nineveh, having reduced in his first year the
southern country to obedience. By the help of Ashur, he says, he went to
Bishi and Yasubirablai (both names of doubtful reading and not
identified), who had long been rebellious to the kings his fathers. He
took Beth Kilamzakh, their principal city, and carried away their men,
small and great, horses, mares, _asses_ (?), oxen, and sheep. The people
of Bishi and Yasubirablai, who had fled from his servants, he brought
down from the mountains and placed them under one of his eunuchs, the
governor of the city of Arapkha. He made tablets, and _wrote on them the
laws (or tribute) imposed upon the conquered, and set them up_ in the
city. He took permanent possession of the country of Illibi (Luristan ?),
and Ispabara, its king, after being defeated, fled, leaving the cities of
Marubishti and Akkuddu, the royal residences, with thirty-four principal
towns, and villages not to be counted, to be destroyed by the Assyrians,
who carried away a large amount of captives and cattle. Beth-barrua, the
city itself and its dependencies, Sennacherib separated from Illibi, and
added to his immediate dominions. The city of _Ilbinzash_ (?) he appointed
to be the chief city in this district. He abolished its former name,
called it Kar-Sanakhirba (_i. e._ the city of Sennacherib), and placed in
it a new people, annexing it to the government of Kharkhar, which must
have been in the neighbourhood of Holwan, commanding the pass through
Mount Zagros.
In the third year of his reign, Sennacherib appears to have overran with
his armies the whole of Syria. He probably crossed the Euphrates above
Carchemish, at or near the ford of Thapsacus, and marched to the
sea-coast, over the northern spur of Mount Lebanon. The Syrians are called
by their familiar biblical name of Hittites, the Khatti, or Khetta, by
which they were also known to the Egyptians. The first opposition he
appears to have received was from Luli (or Luliya), king of Sidon, who had
withheld his homage; but who was soon compelled to fly from Tyre to Yavan
in the middle of the sea. Dr. Hincks identifies this country with the
island of Crete, or some part of the southern coast of Asia Minor, and
with the Yavan ([Hebrew]) of the Old Testament, the country of the
Ionians or Greeks, an identification which I believe to be correct. This
very Phoenician king is mentioned by Josephus (quoting from Menander),
under the name of Elulaeus, as warring with Shalmaneser, a predecessor of
Sennacherib. He appears not to have been completely subdued before this,
but only to have paid homage or tribute to the Assyrian monarchs.[54]
Sennacherib placed a person, whose name is doubtful (Col. Rawlinson reads
it Tubaal), upon the throne of Luli, and appointed his annual tribute. All
the kings of the sea-coast then submitted to him, except Zidkaha (compare
Zedekiah) or Zidkabal, king of Ascalon. This chief was, however, soon
subdued, and was sent, with his household and wealth, to Assyria,
----(name destroyed), the son of _Rukipti_ (?), a former king, being
placed on the throne in his stead. The cities dependent upon Ascalon,
which had not been obedient to his authority, he captured and plundered. A
passage of great importance, which now occurs, is unfortunately so much
injured that it has not yet been satisfactorily restored. It appears to
state that the _chief priests_ (?) and people of Ekron (?) had dethroned
their king Padiya, who was dependent upon Assyria, and had delivered him
up to Hezekiah, king of Judaea. The kings of Egypt sent an army, the main
part of which is said to have belonged to the king of Milukhkha, (Meroe,
or AEthiopia), to Judaea, probably to help their Jewish allies. Sennacherib
joined battle with the Egyptians, totally defeated them near the city of
Al....ku, capturing the charioteers of the king of Milukhkha, and placing
them in confinement. This battle between the armies of the Assyrians and
Egyptians appears to be hinted at in Isaiah and in the Book of Kings.[55]
Padiya having been brought back from Jerusalem, was replaced by
Sennacherib on his throne. "Hezekiah, king of Judah," says the Assyrian
king, "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
defaced, but the substance of it appears to be, that he took from Hezekiah
the treasure he had collected in Jerusalem, 30 talents of gold and 800
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. The city itself, however, he does not pretend to have
taken.
There can be little doubt that the campaign against the cities of
Palestine recorded in the inscriptions of Sennacherib at Kouyunjik, is
that described in the Old Testament. The events agree with considerable
accuracy. We are told in the Book of Kings, that the king of Assyria, in
the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, "came up against all the
fenced cities of Judah and took them,"[56] as he declares himself to have
done in his annals. And, what is most important, and perhaps one of the
most remarkable coincidences of historic testimony on record, the amount
of the treasure in gold taken from Hezekiah, thirty talents, agrees in the
two perfectly independent accounts.[57] Too much stress cannot be laid on
this singular fact, as it tends to prove the general accuracy of the
historical details contained in the Assyrian inscriptions. There is a
difference of 500 talents, as it will be observed, in the amount of
silver. It is probable that Hezekiah was much pressed by Sennacherib, and
compelled to give him all the wealth that he could collect, as we find him
actually taking the silver from the house of the Lord, as well as from his
own treasury, and cutting off the gold from the doors and pillars of the
temple, to satisfy the demands of the Assyrian king. The Bible may
therefore only include the actual amount of money in the 300 talents of
silver, whilst the Assyrian records comprise all the precious metal taken
away. There are some chronological discrepancies which cannot at present
be satisfactorily reconciled, and which I will not attempt to explain. It
is natural to suppose that Sennacherib would not perpetuate the memory of
his own overthrow; and that, having been unsuccessful in an attempt upon
Jerusalem, his army being visited by the plague described in Scripture, he
should gloss over his defeat by describing the tribute he had previously
received from Hezekiah as the general result of his campaign.
There is no reason to believe, from the biblical account, that Sennacherib
was slain by his sons _immediately_ after his return to Nineveh; on the
contrary, the expression "he returned and dwelt at Nineveh," infers that
he continued to reign for some time over Assyria. We have accordingly his
further annals on the monuments he erected. In his fourth year he went
southward, and subdued the country of Beth-Yakin, defeating Susubira, the
Chaldaean, who dwelt in the city of Bittut on the river--(Agammi, according
to Rawlinson). Further mention is made of Merodach Baladan. "This king
whom I had defeated in a former campaign, escaped from my principal
servants and fled to an island (name lost); his brothers, the seed of his
father's house, whom he left behind him on the coast, with the rest of the
men of his country from Beth-Yakin, near the _salt_ (?) river (the
Shat-el-Arab, or united waters of the Tigris and Euphrates), I carried
away, and several of his towns I threw down and burnt; Assurnad_immi_ (?
Assurnadin, according to Rawlinson), my son, I placed on the throne of his
kingdom." He appears then to have made a large government, of which
Babylon was the chief place.
In the fifth year he defeated the Tokkari, capturing their principal
stronghold or Nipour (_detached hill-fort_ ?), and others of their
castles. He also attacked Maniyakh, king of _Okku_ or _Wukku_ (?), a
country to which no previous Assyrian king had penetrated. This chief
deserted his capital and fled to a distance. Sennacherib carried off the
spoil of his palace and plundered his cities. This expedition seems to
have been to the north of Assyria in Armenia or Asia Minor.
In the following year Sennacherib again marched to the mouths of the
Euphrates and Tigris, and attacked the two cities of Naghit and Naghit
Dibeena. Both cities belonged to the King of Elam (Elamti), or Nuvaki, the
two names being used indifferently for the same country. The Assyrian
king, in order to reach them, was compelled to build ships, and to employ
the mariners of Tyre, Sidon, and Yavan, as navigators. He brought these
vessels down the Tigris, and crossed on them to the Susianian side of the
river, after having first, it would seem, taken the city Naghit which
stood on the western bank. He offered precious sacrifices to a god (?
Neptune, but name doubtful) on the bank of the salt river, and dedicated
to him a ship of gold, and two other golden objects, the nature of which
has not been determined. Mention is then made of his having captured
Naghit Dibeena, together with three other cities, whose names cannot be
well ascertained, and of his crossing the river _Ula_ (? the Ulai of
Daniel, the Eulaeus of the Greeks, and the modern Karoon). Unfortunately
the whole of the passage which contains the record of the expedition
against these cities is much defaced, and has not yet been satisfactorily
restored. It appears to give interesting details of the building of the
ships on the Tigris, by the men of Tyre and Sidon, and of the navigation
of that river.
Such are the principal historical facts recorded on the bulls placed by
Sennacherib in his palace at Nineveh. I have given them fully, in order
that we may endeavour to identify the sculptured representations of these
events on the walls of the chambers and halls of that magnificent
building, described in the course of this work.
As the name of Sennacherib, as well as those of many kings, countries and
cities, are not written phonetically, that is, by letters having a certain
alphabetic value, but by monograms, and the deciphering of them is a
peculiar process, which may sometimes appear suspicious to those not
acquainted with the subject, a few words of explanation may be acceptable
to my readers. The greater number of Assyrian proper names with which we
are acquainted, whether royal or not, appear to have been made up of the
name, epithet, or title, of one of the national deities, and of a second
word, such as "slave of," "servant of," "beloved of," "protected by;" like
the "Theodosius," "Theodorus," &c. of the Greeks, and the "Abdullah," and
"Abd-ur-Rahman," of Mohammedan nations. The names of the gods being
commonly written with a monogram, the first step in deciphering is to know
which god this particular sign denotes. Thus, in the name of Sennacherib,
we have first the determinative of "god," to which no phonetic value is
attached; whilst the second character denotes an Assyrian god, whose name
was San. The first component part of the name of Essarhaddon, is the
monogram for the god Assur. It is this fact which renders it so difficult
to determine, with any degree of confidence, most of the Assyrian names,
and which leads me to warn my readers that, with the exception of such as
can with certainty be identified with well-known historic kings, as
Sargon, Sennacherib, and Essarhaddon, the interpretation of all those
which are found on the monuments of Nineveh, is liable to very
considerable doubt. In speaking of them I shall, therefore, not use any of
the readings which have been suggested by different writers.
Although no question can reasonably exist as to the identification of the
king who built the palace of Kouyunjik with the Sennacherib of Scripture,
it may still be desirable to place before my readers all the corroborative
evidence connected with the subject. In so doing, however, I shall have to
refer to the discoveries made at a subsequent period, and which ought
consequently to be described, if the order of the narrative be strictly
preserved, in a subsequent part of this work. In the first place, it must
be remembered that the Kouyunjik king was undoubtedly the son of the
founder of the palace at Khorsabad. He is so called in the inscriptions
behind the bulls in the S. W. palace at Nimroud, and in numerous detached
inscriptions on bricks, and on other remains from those ruins and from
Kouyunjik. Now the name of the Khorsabad king was generally admitted to be
Sargon, even before his relationship to the Kouyunjik king was known;
although here again we are obliged to attach phonetic powers to characters
used as monograms, which, when occurring as simple letters, appear to have
totally different values. Colonel Rawlinson states, that this king bears
in other inscriptions the name of Shalmaneser, by which he was better
known to the Jews.[58] Dr. Hincks denies that the two names belong to the
same person.
Unfortunately the upper parts of nearly all the bas-reliefs at Kouyunjik
having been destroyed the epigraphs are wanting; and we are unable, as
yet, to identify with certainty the subject represented with any known
event in the reign of Sennacherib. There is, however, one remarkable
exception.
During the latter part of my residence at Mosul a chamber was discovered
in which the sculptures were in better preservation than any before found
at Kouyunjik. Some of the slabs, indeed, were almost entire, though
cracked and otherwise injured by fire; and the epigraph, which fortunately
explained the event portrayed, was complete. These bas-reliefs represented
the siege and capture by the Assyrians, of a city evidently of great
extent and importance. It appears to have been defended by double walls,
with battlements and towers, and by fortified outworks. The country around
it was hilly and wooded, producing the fig and the vine. The whole power
of the great king seems to have been called forth to take this
stronghold. In no other sculptures were so many armed warriors seen drawn
up in array before a besieged city. The besieged defended themselves with
great determination. Spearmen, archers, and slingers thronged the
battlements and towers, showering arrows, javelins, stones, and blazing
torches upon the assailants. Part of the city had, however, been taken.
Beneath its walls were seen Assyrian warriors impaling their prisoners,
and from the gateway of an advanced tower, or fort, issued a procession of
captives, reaching to the presence of the king, who, gorgeously arrayed,
received them seated on his throne. The vanquished people were
distinguished from the conquerors by their dress, those who defended the
battlements wore a pointed helmet, differing from that of the Assyrian
warriors in having a fringed lappet falling over the ears. Some of the
captives had a kind of turban with one end hanging down to the shoulder,
not unlike that worn by the modern Arabs of the Hedjaz. Others had no
head-dress, and short hair and beards. Their garments consisted either of
a robe reaching to the ankles, or of a tunic scarcely falling lower than
the thigh, and confined at the waist by a girdle. The women wore long
shirts, with an outer cloak thrown, like the veil of modern Eastern
ladies, over the back of the head and falling to the feet.
Several prisoners were already in the hands of the torturers. Two were
stretched naked upon the ground to be flayed alive, others were being
slain by the sword before the throne of the king. The haughty monarch was
receiving the chiefs of the conquered nation, who crouched and knelt
humbly before him. They were brought into the royal presence by the Tartan
of the Assyrian forces, probably the Rabshakeh himself, followed by his
principal officers. The general was clothed in embroidered robes, and wore
on his head a fillet adorned with rosettes and long tasseled bands.
The throne of the king stood upon an elevated platform, probably an
artificial mound, in the hill country. Its arms and sides were supported
by three rows of figures one above the other. The wood was richly carved,
or encased in embossed metal, and the legs ended in pine-shaped ornaments,
probably of bronze. The throne, indeed, appears to have resembled, in
every respect, one discovered in the north-west palace at Nimroud, which I
shall hereafter describe.[59] Over the high back was thrown an embroidered
cloth, doubtless of some rare and beautiful material.
[Illustration: Sennacherib on his Throne before Lachish.]
The royal feet rested upon a high footstool of elegant form, fashioned
like the throne, and cased with embossed metal; the legs ended in lions'
paws. Behind the king were two attendant eunuchs raising fans above his
head, and holding the embroidered napkins.
The monarch himself was attired in long loose robes richly ornamented, and
edged with tassels and fringes. In his right hand he raised two arrows,
and his left rested upon a bow; an attitude, probably denoting triumph
over his enemies, and in which he is usually portrayed when receiving
prisoners after a victory.
Behind the king was the royal tent or pavilion: and beneath him were his
led horses, and an attendant on foot carrying the parasol, the emblem of
royalty. His two chariots with their charioteers, were waiting for him.
The trappings of the horses were handsomely decorated, and an embroidered
cloth, hung with tassels, fell on their chests. Two quivers, holding a
bow, a hatchet, and arrows, were fixed to the side of the chariot.
This fine series of bas-reliefs, occupying thirteen slabs, was finished by
the ground-plan of a castle, or of a fortified camp containing tents and
houses. Within the walls was also seen a fire-altar with two beardless
priests, wearing high conical caps, standing before it. In front of the
altar, on which burned the sacred flame, was a table bearing various
sacrificial objects, and beyond it two sacred chariots, such as
accompanied the Persian kings in their wars.[60] The horses had been taken
out, and the yokes rested upon stands. Each chariot carried a lofty pole
surmounted by a globe, and long tassels or streamers; similar standards
were introduced into scenes representing sacrifices[61] in the sculptures
of Khorsabad.
Above the head of the king was an inscription, which may be translated,
"Sennacherib, the mighty king, king of the country of Assyria, sitting on
the throne of judgment, before (or at the entrance of) the city of Lachish
(Lakhisha). I give permission for its slaughter."
Here, therefore, was the actual picture of the taking of Lachish, the
city, as we know from the Bible, besieged by Sennacherib, when he sent his
generals to demand tribute of Hezekiah, and which he had captured before
their return[62]; evidence of the most remarkable character to confirm the
interpretation of the inscriptions, and to identify the king who caused
them to be engraved with the Sennacherib of Scripture. This highly
interesting series of bas-reliefs contained, moreover, an undoubted
representation of a king, a city, and a people, with whose names we are
acquainted, and of an event described in Holy Writ. They furnish us,
therefore, with illustrations of the Bible of very great importance. The
captives were undoubtedly Jews, their physiognomy was strikingly indicated
in the sculptures, but they had been stripped of their ornaments and their
fine raiment, and were left bare-footed and half-clothed. From the women,
too, had been removed "the splendor of the foot ornaments and the caps of
network, and the crescents; the ear-pendants, and the bracelets, and the
thin veils; the head-dress, and the ornaments of the legs and the girdles,
and the perfume-boxes and the amulets; the rings and the jewels of the
nose; the embroidered robes and the tunics, and the cloaks and the
satchels; the transparent garments, and the fine linen vests, and the
turbans and the mantles, for they wore instead of a girdle, a rope; and
instead of a stomacher, a girdling of sackcloth."[63]
Other corroborative evidence as to the identity of the king who built the
palace of Kouyunjik with Sennacherib, is scarcely less remarkable. In a
chamber, or passage, in the south-west corner of this edifice, were found
a large number of pieces of fine clay bearing the impressions of seals,
which, there is no doubt, had been affixed, like modern official seals of
wax, to documents written on leather, papyrus, or parchment. Such
documents, with seals in clay still attached, have been discovered in
Egypt, and specimens are preserved in the British Museum. The writings
themselves had been consumed by the fire which destroyed the building or
had perished from decay. In the stamped clay, however, may still be seen
the holes for the string, or strips of skin, by which the seal was
fastened; in some instances the ashes of the string itself remain,[64]
with the marks of the fingers and thumb.
The greater part of these seals are Assyrian, but with them are others
bearing Egyptian, Phoenician, and doubtful symbols and characters.
Sometimes the same seal is impressed more than once on the same piece of
clay. The Assyrian devices are of various kinds; the most common is that
of a king plunging a dagger into the body of a rampant lion. This appears
to have been the royal, and, indeed, the national, seal or signet. It is
frequently encircled by a short inscription, which has not yet been
deciphered, or by a simple guilloche border. The same group, emblematic of
the superior power and wisdom of the king, as well as of his sacred
character, is found on Assyrian cylinders, gems, and monuments.
Other devices found among these impressions of seals are:--1. A king,
attended by a priest, in act of adoration before a deity standing on a
lion, and surrounded by seven stars: above the god's head, on one seal, is
a scorpion. 2. The king, followed by an attendant bearing a parasol, and
preceded by a rampant horse. 3. A god, or the king, probably the former,
rising from a crescent. There appears to be a fish in front of the figure.
4. The king, with an eunuch or priest before him; a flower, or ornamented
staff, between them. 5. A scorpion, surrounded by a guilloche border (a
device of very frequent occurrence, and probably astronomical). 6. A
priest worshipping before a god. Behind him are a bull, and the sacred
astronomical emblems. 8. An ear of corn, surrounded by a fancy border. 9.
An object resembling a dagger, with flowers attached to the handle;
perhaps a sacrificial knife. 10. The head of a bull and a trident, two
sacred symbols of frequent occurrence on Assyrian monuments. 11. A
crescent in the midst of a many-rayed star. 12. Several rudely cut seals,
representing priests and various sacred animals, stars, &c.
The seals most remarkable for beauty of design and skilful execution
represent horsemen, one at full speed raising a spear, the other hunting a
stag. The impressions show that they were little inferior to Greek
intaglios. No Assyrian or Babylonian relics yet discovered, equal them in
delicacy of workmanship, and the best examples of the art of engraving on
gems,--an art which appears to have reached great perfection amongst the
Assyrians,--are unknown to us, except through these impressions.
There are three seals apparently Phoenician; two of them bearing
Phoenician characters, for which I cannot suggest any interpretation. A
few have doubtful symbols upon them, which I will not attempt to explain;
perhaps hieroglyphical signs.
Of the purely Egyptian seals there are four. One has two cartouches placed
on the symbol of gold, and each surmounted by a tall plume; they probably
contained the praenomen and name of a king, but not the slightest trace
remains of the hieroglyphs. The impression is concave, having been made
from a convex surface: the back of some of the Egyptian ovals, the rudest
form of the scarabaeus, are of this shape. On the second seal is the figure
of the Egyptian god Harpocrates, seated on a lotus flower, with his finger
placed upon his mouth; an attitude in which he is represented on an ivory
from Nimroud. The hieroglyph before him does not appear to be Egyptian.
But the most remarkable and important of the Egyptian seals are two
impressions of a royal signet, which, though imperfect, retain the
cartouche, with the name of the king, so as to be perfectly legible. It is
one well known to Egyptian scholars, as that of the second Sabaco the
AEthiopian, of the twenty-fifth dynasty. On the same piece of clay is
impressed an Assyrian seal, with a device representing a priest
ministering before the king, probably a royal signet.
There can be no doubt whatever as to the identity of the cartouche. Sabaco
reigned in Egypt at the end of the seventh century before Christ, the
exact time at which Sennacherib came to the throne. He is probably the So
mentioned in the second book of Kings (xvii. 4.) as having received
ambassadors from Hoshea, the king of Israel, who, by entering into a
league with the Egyptians, called down the vengeance of Shalmaneser, whose
tributary he was, which led to the first great captivity of the people of
Samaria. Shalmaneser we know to have been an immediate predecessor of
Sennacherib, and Tirakhah, the Egyptian king, who was defeated by the
Assyrians near Lachish, was the immediate successor of Sabaco II.
It would seem that a peace having been concluded between the Egyptians and
one of the Assyrian monarchs, probably Sennacherib, the royal signets of
the two kings, thus found together, were attached to the treaty, which was
deposited amongst the archives of the kingdom. Whilst the document itself,
written upon parchment or papyrus, has completely perished, this singular
proof of the alliance, if not actual meeting, of the two monarchs is still
preserved amidst the remains of the state papers of the Assyrian empire;
furnishing one of the most remarkable instances of confirmatory evidence
on record,[65] whether we regard it as verifying the correctness of the
interpretation of the cuneiform character, or as an illustration of
Scripture history.
Little doubt, I trust, can now exist in the minds of my readers as to the
identification of the builder of the palace of Kouyunjik, with the
Sennacherib of Scripture. Had the name stood alone, we might reasonably
have questioned the correctness of the reading, especially as the signs or
monograms, with which it is written, are admitted to have no phonetic
power. But when characters, whose alphabetic values have been determined
from a perfectly distinct source, such as the Babylonian column of the
trilingual inscriptions, furnish us with names in the records attributed
to Sennacherib, written almost identically as in the Hebrew version of the
Bible, such as Hezekiah, Jerusalem, Judah, Sidon, and others, and all
occurring in one and the same paragraph, their reading, moreover,
confirmed by synchronisms, and illustrated by sculptured representations
of the events, the identification must be admitted to be complete.
The palace of Khorsabad, as I have already observed, was built by the
father of Sennacherib. The edifice in the south-west corner of Nimroud was
raised by the son, as we learn from the inscription on the back of the
bulls discovered in that building. The name of the king is admitted to be
Essarhaddon, and there are events, as it will hereafter be seen, mentioned
in his records, which further tend to identify him with the Essarhaddon of
Scripture, who, after the murder of his father Sennacherib, succeeded to
the throne.
I may mention in conclusion, as connected with the bulls forming the grand
entrance, that in the rubbish at the foot of one of them were found four
cylinders and several beads, with a scorpion in lapis lazuli, all
apparently once strung together. On one cylinder of translucent green
felspar, called amazon stone, which I believe to have been the signet, or
amulet, of Sennacherib himself, is engraved the king standing in an arched
frame as on the rock tablets at Bavian, and at the Nahr-el-Kelb in Syria.
The intaglio of this beautiful gem is not deep but sharp and distinct, and
the details are so minute, that a magnifying glass is almost required to
perceive them.
On a smaller cylinder, in the same green felspar, is a cuneiform
inscription, which has not yet been deciphered, but which does not appear
to contain any royal name. On two cylinders of onyx, also found at
Kouyunjik, and now in the British Museum, are, however, the name and
titles of Sennacherib.