SITTING STATUE OF GUDEA 122 MAP--THE FIRST ASSYRIAN EMPIRE 135 VIEW OF THE TEMPLE OF UR IN ITS PRESENT STATE, ACCORDING TO LOFTUS 141 THE GARDENS AND HILL OF DHUSPAS OR VAN 163 THE RUINS OF A PALACE OF URARTU AT TOPRAK-KALEH 166 THE RUINS AT BOGHAZ KEUI 174 ONE OF THE PROCESSIONS IN THE RAVINE OF BOGHAZ 176 PREFACE The first six chapters which follow, embody the Rhind Lectures in Archæology which I delivered at Edinburgh in October 1906. The seventh chapter appeared as an article in the _Contemporary Review_ for August 1905, and is here reprinted by the courtesy of the Editor to whom I render my thanks. The book is the first attempt to deal with what I would call the archæology of cuneiform decipherment, and like all pioneering work consequently claims the indulgence of the reader. For the sake of clearness I have been forced to repeat myself in a few instances, more especially in the sixth chapter, but what has thereby been lost in literary finish will, I hope, be compensated by an increase of clearness in the argument. If what I have written serves no other purpose, I shall be content if it draws attention to the miserably defective state of our archæological knowledge of Babylonia and Assyria, and to the necessity of scientific excavations being carried on there similar to those inaugurated by Mr. Rhind in Egypt. We have abundance of epigraphic material; it is the more purely archæological material that is still wanting.