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
The lion entrance led into a chamber 46 ft. by 19 ft. Nearly opposite to
the entrance was a doorway panelled with slabs sculptured with winged
figures carrying maces. The inner door led into a chamber 47 ft. by 31
ft., ending in a recess paved with one enormous alabaster slab, no less
than 21 ft. by 16 ft. 7 in., and 1 ft. 1 in. thick. This monolith had been
broken into several pieces probably by the falling in of the roof of the
building, and had in several places been reduced to lime by the burning
beams of the ceiling. The whole of its surface, as well as the side facing
the chamber, was occupied by one inscription, 325 lines in length, divided
into two parallel horizontal columns, and carved with the greatest
sharpness and care. On subsequently raising the detached pieces, I found
that the back of the slab, resting on a solid mass of sun-dried bricks,
was also covered with cuneiform writing, occupying three columns. It is
difficult to understand why so much labor should have been apparently
thrown away upon an inscription which would remain unseen until the
edifice itself was utterly destroyed. Still more curious is the fact, that
whilst this inscription contains all the historical details of that on the
opposite side, the records of two or three more years are added, and that
the upper inscription stops abruptly in the middle of a sentence. It is
possible that the builders of the temple, foreseeing its ruin, had
determined that if their enemies should through malice deface their
annals, there should yet remain another record, inaccessible and unknown,
which would preserve the history of their greatness and glory unto all
time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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