Meanwhile Mr. Layard was rapidly accumulating treasures upon even a greater scale for the British Museum. He began to excavate at Nimrud—the ancient Caleh—in November 1845, and speedily brought to light the remains of three buildings, known as the North-West, Central and South-West Palaces. In the following year he extended his labours to Kouyunjik, a mound on the site of Nineveh, where he unearthed a palace of unusual size, which he found had been erected by the son of the Khorsabad king. He was rewarded by the discovery of the vast treasures now preserved in the British Museum—colossal bulls and lions, winged human figures, and many other symbolical objects; long rows of bas-reliefs depicting battles, sieges and hunting scenes, and large numbers of inscriptions. One of the most important of these was found in the autumn of 1846 on a black obelisk in the central palace of Nimrud. It consists of two hundred and ten lines, and enjoys the distinction of being the first purely Assyrian inscription that was ever deciphered.[722] Of scarcely less importance was the discovery of an inscription upon the pavement where the names and titles of five kings were clearly recorded. Their names could not indeed be read as yet, but sufficient was already known from a comparison with the Persian inscriptions to indicate the genealogical relationship of the unknown sovereign. The Assyrian signs for ‘king,’ ‘son of’ and a few others had been made out, which left no doubt as to the meaning of the document. It began with the father of the founder of the North-West Palace, and ended with the grandson of the builder of the Central Palace. On his return to England, in 1847, Layard wrote an account of ‘Nineveh and its Remains,’ but the work did not appear till 1849. It was followed in the same year by the ‘Monuments of Nineveh,’ which contained drawings of the bas-reliefs and copies of the inscriptions. Two great collections of Assyrian inscriptions were now in the hands of scholars, who found themselves face to face with the difficult problems they suggested. In England the task was divided between Hincks and Rawlinson; but Mr. Norris, Dr. Birch, and Mr. Layard gave valuable assistance in the publication of documents. Mr. Norris was farther engaged in the study of the Susian texts. In France the work was taken up by Botta, Löwenstern and De Saulcy. M. Oppert does not seem to have turned his attention to this branch of the subject till 1857, when for the first time France was worthily represented. Germany was silent, except for a few contributions made by Grotefend in his declining years that added little to the general progress.