The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh: The Discovery of the Tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and Smith — John Shaqi
The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh: The Discovery of the Tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and SmithBudge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Religion
The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh: The Discovery of the Tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and Smith
The situation of the ruins of the palaces of Nineveh is well shown
by the accompanying reproduction of the plan of the city made by
Commander Felix Jones, I.N. The remains of the older palaces built by
Sargon II (B.C. 721-705), Sennacherib (B.C. 705-681), and Esarhaddon
(B.C. 681-668) lie under the hill called Nabi Yûnis, and those of
the palaces and other buildings of Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 681-626)
under the mound which is known locally as "Tall al-'Armûshîyah," i.e.,
"The Hill of 'Armûsh," and "Kuyûnjik." The latter name is said to be
derived from two Turkish words meaning "many sheep," in allusion to
the large flocks of sheep that find their pasture on and about the
mound in the early spring. These two great mounds lie close to the
remains of the great west wall of Nineveh, which in the time of the
last Assyrian Empire was washed by the waters of the river Tigris. At
some unknown period the course of the river changed, and it is now more
than a mile distant from the city wall. The river Khausur, or Khoser,
divides the area of Nineveh into two parts, and passing close to the
southern end of Kuyûnjik empties itself into the Tigris. The ruins of
the wails of Nineveh show that the east wall was 16,000 feet long, the
north wall 7,000 feet long, the west wall 13,600 feet, and the south
wall 3,000 feet; its circuit was about 13,200 yards or 7 1/2 miles.
Discovery of the Library of the Temple of Nebo at Nineveh.
In the spring of 1852 Layard, assisted by H. Rassam, continued the
excavation of the "South West Palace" at Kuyûnjik. In one part of the
building he found two small chambers, opening into each other, which
he called the "chamber of records," or "the house of the rolls." He
gave them this name because "to the height of a foot or more from the
floor they were entirely filled" with inscribed baked clay tablets
and fragments of tablets. Some tablets were complete, but by far the
larger number of them had been broken up into many fragments, probably
by the falling in of the roof and upper parts of the walls of the
buildings when the city was pillaged and set on fire by the Medes and
Babylonians. The tablets that were kept in these chambers numbered
many thousands. Besides those that were found in them by Layard,
large numbers have been dug out all along the corridor which passed
the chambers and led to the river, and a considerable number were
kicked on to the river front by the feet of the terrified fugitives
from the palace when it was set on fire. The tablets found by Layard
were of different sizes; the largest were rectangular, flat on one
side and convex on the other, and measured about 9 ins. by 6 1/2 ins.,
and the smallest were about an inch square. The importance of this
"find" was not sufficiently recognized at the time, for the tablets,
which were thought to be decorated pottery, were thrown into baskets
and sent down the river loose on rafts to Basrah, whence they were
despatched to England on a British man o' war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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