Hitherto the cuneiform inscriptions known to Europe had been practically limited to the Persepolitan and Babylonian styles of writing. A few examples of different varieties were, however, beginning to crowd upon the bewildered student. Almost the first examples of the Assyrian style were collected by Mr. Rich in 1820, during his visit to Nineveh, and these were subsequently acquired by the British Museum.[718] In 1827, Schulz found about forty inscriptions at Van, written in a very similar character, and these were published in the ‘Journal Asiatique’ of 1840.[719] A prism with a long inscription was discovered at Nineveh in 1830, but it does not seem to have become accessible till purchased by Colonel Taylor in 1846.[720] In 1840, Mr. Layard copied an inscription at Malamir that presented another striking variety. But the first period of great discoveries in Assyria had now approached. In 1843, M. Botta, the French Consul at Mosul, began his excavations in the mound at Khorsabad, and he soon uncovered the remains of a palace. He found the doors adorned with monumental bulls, and the walls decorated with bas-reliefs and inscriptions. He described the result in a series of letters to M. Mohl, which appeared in the ‘Journal Asiatique’ between May 1843 and June 1845. M. Flandin was hastily commissioned to take sketches; but fortunately the task of copying the inscriptions was left entirely to Botta. He faithfully transcribed upwards of two hundred, many of them being, however, exact or slightly varied reproductions of each other. A large collection of sculptures found its way to the Louvre, and the drawings and inscriptions made their appearance in 1849 in the great work ‘Monument de Ninive.’ Like many similar productions in France, it was executed upon such a splendid scale as to place it practically beyond the reach of ordinary students. The inscriptions were, however, afterwards published separately; and M. Botta contributed a valuable essay on the newly found ‘Ecriture Assyrienne’ (1848).[721]