_I.--Mosul and its Hidden Mysteries_
Sir Austen Henry Layard, the most famous of all Oriental
archæological explorers and discoverers, was born in
Paris, on March 5, 1817, and died on July 5, 1894.
Intended for the English legal profession, but contracting
a dislike to the prospect, he determined to make himself
familiar with the romantic regions of the Near East, and
travelled in all parts of the Turkish and Persian Empires,
and through several districts of Arabia. The desire came
upon him to investigate the mysterious mounds on the great
plains of the Tigris and the Euphrates, and he began that
series of excavations which resulted in the most
sensational discoveries of modern times, for he unearthed
the remains of the long-buried city of Nineveh. With the
marvellous, massive, and sublime sculptures of winged,
human-headed bulls and lions, and eagle-headed deities, he
enriched the galleries of the British Museum, England thus
becoming possessed of the finest collection of the kind in
the world. Layard's two volumes, "Nineveh and Its Remains"
(1848) and "Monuments of Nineveh" (1850), are unique
records of special enterprise and skill.
During the autumn of 1839 and winter of 1840, I had been wandering
through Asia Minor and Syria, scarcely leaving untrod one spot hallowed
by tradition, or unvisited one spot consecrated by history. I was
accompanied by one no less curious and enthusiastic than myself--Edward
Ledwich Mitford, afterwards engaged in the civil service in Ceylon. We
were both equally careless of comfort and unmindful of danger. We rode
alone; our arms were our only protection; and we tended our own horses,
except when relieved from the duty by the hospitable inhabitants of a
Turcoman village or an Arab tent.
We left Aleppo on March 18, took the road through Bir and Orfa, and,
traversing the low country at the foot of the Kurdish hills, reached
Mosul on April 10.
During a short stay in the town we visited the great ruins on the east
bank of the river which have been generally believed to be the remains
of Nineveh. We rode into the desert and explored the mound of Kalah
Shergat, a vast, shapeless mass, covered with grass, with remains of
ancient walls laid open where the winter rains had formed ravines.
A few fragments of ancient pottery and inscribed bricks proved that it
owed its construction to the people who had founded the city of which
the mounds of Nimroud are the remains. These huge mounds of Assyria made
a deeper impression upon me than the temples of Baalbec and the theatres
of Ionia. My curiosity had been greatly excited, and I formed the design
of thoroughly examining, whenever it might be in my power, the ruins of
Nimroud.
It was not till the summer of 1842 that I again passed through Mosul on
my way to Constantinople. I found that M. Botta had, since my first
visit, commenced excavations on the opposite side of the Tigris in the
large mound of Kouyunjik, and in the village of Khorsabad. To him is due
the honour of having found the first Assyrian monument. He uncovered an
edifice belonging to the age preceding the conquests of Alexander. This
was a marvellous and epoch-making discovery.
My first step on reaching Mosul was to present my letters to Mohammed
Pasha, governor of the province. His appearance matched his temper and
conduct, and thus was not prepossessing. Nature had placed hypocrisy
beyond his reach. He had one eye and one ear, was short and fat, deeply
marked by small-pox, and uncouth in gestures and harsh in voice. At the
time of my arrival the population was in despair at his exactions and
cruelties.
The appearance of a stranger led to hopes, and reports were whispered
about the town that I was the bearer of the news of the disgrace of the
tyrant. But his vengeance speedily fell on the principal inhabitants,
for such as had hitherto escaped his rapacity were seized and stripped
of their property, on the plea that they had spread reports detrimental
to his authority.
Such was the pasha to whom I was introduced two days after my arrival by
the British Vice-Consul, M. Rassam. I understood that my plans must be
kept secret, though I was ready to put them into operation. I knew that
from the authorities and people of the town I could only look for the
most decided opposition. On November 8, having secretly procured a few
tools, I engaged a mason at the moment of my departure, and carrying
with me a variety of guns, spears, and other formidable weapons,
declared that I was going to hunt wild boars in a neighbouring village,
and floated down the Tigris on a small raft, accompanied by Mr. Ross, a
British merchant then residing at Mosul, my cavass, and a servant.
At this time of year nearly seven hours are required to descend the
Tigris, from Mosul to Nimroud. It was sunset before we reached the Awai,
or dam across the river. We landed and walked to a small hamlet called
Naifa. We had entered a heap of ruins, but were welcomed by an Arab
family crouching round a heap of half-extinguished embers. The
half-naked children and women retreated into a corner of the hut. The
man, clad in ample cloak and white turban, being able to speak a little
Turkish, and being active and intelligent, seemed likely to be of use to
me.
I acquainted him with the object of my journey, offering him regular
employment in the event of the experiment proving successful, and
assigning him fixed wages as superintendent of the workmen. He
volunteered to walk, in the middle of the night, to Selamiyah, a village
three miles distant, and to some Arab tents in the neighbourhood, to
procure men to assist in the excavations. I slept little during the
night. Hopes long cherished were now to be realised, or were to end in
disappointment.
Visions of palaces under ground, of gigantic monsters, or sculptured
figures, and endless inscriptions floated before me. In the morning I
was roused and informed that six workmen had been secured. Twenty
minutes' walk brought us to the principal mound. Broken pottery and
fragments of brick, inscribed with cuneiform characters, were strewn on
all sides. With joy I found the fragment of a bas-relief. Convinced that
sculptured remains must still exist in some parts of the mound, I sought
for a place where excavations might be commenced with some prospects of
success. Awad led me to a piece of alabaster which appeared above the
soil. We could not remove it, and on digging downward it proved to be
the upper part of a large slab. I ordered the men to work around it, and
shortly we uncovered a second slab.
One after another, thirteen slabs came to light, the whole forming a
square, with a slab missing at one corner. We had found a chamber, and
the gap was at its entrance. I now dug down the face of one of the
stones, and a cuneiform inscription was soon exposed to view. Leaving
half the workmen to remove the rubbish from the chamber, I led the rest
to the south-west corner of the mound, where I had observed many
fragments of calcined alabaster.
A trench, opened in the side of the mound, brought me almost immediately
to a wall, bearing inscriptions in the same character. Next day, five
more workmen having joined, before evening the work of the first party
was completed, and I found myself in a room panelled with slabs about
eight feet high, and varying from six to four feet in breadth.
Some objects of ivory, on which were traces of gold leaf had been found
by Awad in the ruins, and these I told him to keep, much to his
surprise. But word had already been sent to the pasha of all details of
my doings. When I called on him he pretended at first to be ignorant of
the excavations, but presently, as if to convict me of prevarication in
my answers to his questions as to the amount of treasure discovered,
pulled out of his writing-tray a scrap of paper in which was an almost
invisible particle of gold leaf. This, he said, had been brought to him
by the commander of the irregular troops at Selamiyah, who had been
watching my proceedings.
I suggested that he should name an agent to be present as long as I
worked at Nimroud, to take charge of all the precious metals that might
be discovered. He promised to write on the subject to the chief of the
irregulars, but offered no objection to the continuation of my
researches. I returned to Nimroud on the 19th, increased my workmen to
thirty, and divided them into three parties. The excavations were
actively carried on, and an entrance, or doorway, leading into the
interior of the mound, being cleared, rich results soon rewarded our
efforts. In a chamber that the Arabs unearthed were found two slabs on
which were splendid bas-reliefs, depicting on each a battle scene. In
the upper part of the largest were represented two chariots, each drawn
by richly caparisoned horses at full speed, and containing a group of
three warriors, the principal of which was beardless and evidently a
eunuch, grasping a bow at full stretch.
_II.--"They have Found Nimrod Himself!"_
Mohammed Pasha was deposed, and on my return to Mosul, in the beginning
of January, I found Ismail Pasha installed in the government. My fresh
experiments among the ruins speedily led to the discoveries of
extraordinary bas-reliefs. The most perfect of these represented a king,
distinguished by his high, conical tiara, raising his extended right
hand and resting his left on a bow. At his feet crouched a warrior,
probably a captive or rebel. A eunuch held a fly-flapper over the head
of the king, who appeared to be talking with an officer standing in
front of him, probably his vizir or minister.
The digging of two long trenches led to the discovery of two more walls
with sculptures not well preserved. I abandoned this part of the mound
and resumed excavations in the north-west ruins near the chamber first
opened, where the slabs were uninjured. In two days the workmen reached
the top of an entire slab, standing in its original position. In a few
hours the earth was completely removed, and there stood to view, to my
great satisfaction, two colossal human figures, carved in low relief and
in admirable preservation.
The figures were back to back, and from the shoulders of each sprang two
wings. They appeared to represent divinities, presiding over seasons.
One carried a fallow deer on his right arm, and in his left a branch
bearing five flowers. The other held a square vessel or basket in the
left hand, and an object resembling a fir cone in his right.
On the morning following these discoveries some of the Arab workmen came
towards me in the utmost excitement, exclaiming: "Hasten to the diggers,
for they have found Nimrod himself! Wallah! it is wonderful, but we have
seen him with our own eyes. There is no God but God." On reaching the
trench I found unearthed an enormous human head sculptured out of the
alabaster of the country.
They had uncovered the upper part of a figure, the remainder of which
was still buried in the earth. I saw at once that the head must belong
to a winged bull or lion, similar to those at Khorsabad and Persepolis.
It was in admirable preservation. I was not surprised that the Arabs had
been amazed and terrified at this apparition. They declared that this
was one of the giants whom Noah cursed before the flood, and was not
the work of men's hands at all. By the end of March I unearthed several
other such colossal figures. They were about twelve feet high and twelve
feet long.
I used to contemplate for hours these mysterious emblems, and muse over
their intent and history. What more noble forms could have ushered the
people into the temples of their gods? They formed the avenue to the
portals. For twenty-five centuries they had been hidden from the eye of
man, and now they stood forth once more in their ancient majesty.
_III.--Unearthing the Palaces of Assyria_
As the discoveries proceeded in several successive seasons, they threw
vivid light on the manners and customs of the Assyrians. My working
parties were distributed over the mound, in the ruins of the north-west
and south-west palaces; near the gigantic bulls in the centre, and in
the south-east corner, where no traces of buildings had as yet been
discovered.
I was anxious to pack some of the slabs, which were of the highest
interest, to England. They represented the wars of the king and his
victories over foreign nations. Above him was the emblem of the supreme
deity, represented, as at Persepolis, by a winged man within a circle,
and wearing a horned cap resembling that of the human-headed lions. Like
the king, he was shooting an arrow, the head of which was in the form of
a trident.
Four bas-reliefs, representing a battle, were especially illustrative of
Assyrian customs. A eunuch is seen commanding in war, as we have before
seen him ministering to the king at religious ceremonies, or waiting on
him as his arms-bearer during peace. Judging from the slabs, cavalry
must have formed a large and important portion of the Assyrian armies.
The lower series of bas-reliefs contained three subjects: the siege of a
castle, the king receiving prisoners, and the king with his army
crossing a river. To the castle, the besiegers had brought a
battering-ram, which two warriors were seeking to hold in its place by
hooks, this part of the bas-relief illustrating the account in the Book
of Chronicles and in Josephus of the machine for battering walls,
instruments to cast stones, and grappling-irons made by Uzziah.
A cargo of sculptures had already been sent to England for the British
Museum, and by the middle of December a second was ready to be
dispatched on the river to Baghdad.
When the excavations were recommenced after Christmas eight chambers had
been discovered. There were now so many outlets and entrances that I had
no trouble in finding new chambers, one leading into another. By the end
of April I had uncovered almost the whole building, and had opened
twenty-eight halls and rooms cased with alabaster slabs.
The colossal figure of a woman with four wings, carrying a garland, now
in the British Museum, was discovered in a chamber on the south side of
the palace, as was also the fine bas-relief of the king leaning on a
wand, one of the best-preserved and most highly finished specimens of
Assyrian sculpture in the national collection.
In the centre of the palace was a great hall, or rather court, for it
had probably been without a roof and open to the air, with entrances on
the four sides, each formed by colossal human-headed lions and bulls. To
the south of this hall was a cluster of small chambers, opening into
each other. At the entrance to one of them were two winged human figures
wearing garlands, and carrying a wild goat and an ear of corn.
In another chamber were discovered a number of beautiful ivory
ornaments, now in the British Museum. On two slabs, forming an entrance
to a small chamber in this part of the building, some inscriptions
containing the name of Sargon, the king who built the Khorsabad palace.
They had been cut above the standard inscription, to which they were
evidently posterior.
_IV.--Kouyunjik_
Having finished my work at Nimroud, I turned my attention to Kouyunjik.
The term means in Turkish "the little sheep." The great mount is
situated on the plain near the junction of the Khausser and the Tigris,
the former winding round its base and then making its way into the great
stream.
The French consul had carried on desultory excavations some years at
Kouyunjik, without finding any traces of buildings. I set my workmen
commencing operations by the proper method of digging deep trenches. One
morning, as I was at Mosul, two Arab women came to me and announced that
sculptures had been discovered.
I rode to the ruins, and found that a wall and the remains of an
entrance had been reached. The wall proved to be one side of a chamber.
By following it, we reached an entrance, formed by winged human-headed
bulls, leading into a second hall. In a month nine halls and chambers
had been explored. In its architecture the newly discovered edifice
resembled the palaces of Nimroud and Khorsabad. The halls were long and
narrow, the walls of unbaked brick and panelled with sculptured slabs.
The king whose name is on the sculptures and bricks from Kouyunjik was
the father of Esarhaddon, the builder of the south-west palace at
Nimroud, and the son of Sargon, the Khorsabad king, and is now generally
admitted to be Sennacherib.
By the middle of the month of June my labours in Assyria drew to a
close. The time assigned for the excavations had been expended, and
further researches were not contemplated for the present. I prepared,
therefore, to turn my steps homeward after an absence of many years. The
ruins of Nimroud had been again covered up, and its palaces were once
more hidden from the eye.