Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and BabylonLayard, Austen Henry
History
Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon
Layard, Austen Henry
Babylon (Extinct city); Middle East -- Description and travel; Nineveh (Extinct city); Scientific expeditions
As the workmen could no longer, without some danger, excavate in this part
of the ruins, they had returned to the chamber already described as
containing a series of bas-reliefs representing the capture and sack of a
large city in the mountains, and as opening into the broad gallery on
whose walls were depictured the various processes employed by the
Assyrians in moving their colossal figures. From this chamber branched to
the south a narrow passage, whose sculptured panels had been purposely
destroyed. It led into a great hall, which the workmen did not then
explore. They continued for a few feet along its western side, and then
turning through a doorway, discovered a chamber, from which again, always
following the line of wall, they entered a spacious apartment, completely
surrounded with bas-reliefs, representing one continuous subject. The
Assyrian army was seen fording a broad river amidst wooded mountains. The
king in his chariot was followed by a long retinue of warriors on foot and
on horses richly caparisoned, by led horses with even gayer trappings, and
by men bearing on their shoulders his second chariot, which had a yoke
ornamented with bosses and carvings. After crossing the river they
attacked the enemy's strongholds, which they captured one by one, putting
to death or carrying into captivity their inhabitants. The captives wore a
kind of turban wrapped in several folds round the head, and a short tunic
confined at the waist by a broad belt. From the nature of the country it
may be conjectured that the sculptures represented a campaign in some part
of Armenia, and I am inclined to identify the river with the Euphrates,
near whose head-waters, as we learn from the bull inscriptions,
Sennacherib waged one of his most important wars.
The slabs at the western end of this chamber were actually _curved
backwards_, showing the enormous pressure that must have taken place from
the falling in of the upper part of the building, by which not only the
alabaster was bent, but driven into the wall of sundried bricks.
On the north side of the chamber were two doorways leading into separate
apartments. Each entrance was formed by two colossal bas-reliefs of Dagon,
or the fish-god. Unfortunately the upper part of all these figures had
been destroyed, but as the lower remained from above the waist we can have
no difficulty in restoring the whole, especially as the same image is
seen entire on a fine Assyrian cylinder of agate in my possession. It
combined the human shape with that of the fish. The head of the fish
formed a mitre above that of the man, whilst its scaly back and fanlike
tail fell as a cloak behind, leaving the human limbs and feet exposed. The
figure wore a fringed tunic, and bore the two sacred emblems, the basket
and the cone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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