Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon Part 26

Of a.s.syrian relics obtained from the ruins, the most interesting are

A colossal beardless head in limestone, remarkable for the boldness of the style. It is, probably, part of a lion-sphinx.

Handles in the form of the heads of lions, and other fragments of vases and dishes.

A fragment of striped marble, carved with figures in relief, and bearing an inscription with the genealogy and t.i.tles of Essarhaddon.

A gold ear-ring adorned with pearls, resembling those still in common use amongst Arab women.

A rude circular vessel in limestone, ornamented on the outside with figures in relief of the a.s.syrian Hercules struggling with the lion.

Moulds for casting ear-rings and other ornaments in gold and silver. The forms upon them are all purely a.s.syrian, as the lion-headed deity, the cone, the bull's head, and the sacred signs seen in the Nimroud sculptures round the neck of the king. The largest mould is in limestone, the others in serpentine. They are precisely such as are used to this day by Arab goldsmiths.

Various copper instruments (one in the shape of a sickle), a key,[241] a comb, and other objects, such as the heads of spears and arrows, in iron; gla.s.s bottles, pottery, fragments of terracotta, and marble with inscriptions, and many other relics, all of which, with those above enumerated, are now in the British Museum.

I had long been desirous of making some experiments in the mound on which stands the so-called tomb of the prophet Jonah. It forms part of the great group of ruins opposite Mosul, and is, like Kouyunjik, in the line of the inclosure walls. Some have believed it to represent the real site of ancient Nineveh, Kouyunjik being the remains of a palace added to the city at a later period. It was important, therefore, to ascertain the nature and probable date of the edifice covered by the mound. The sanct.i.ty of the place prevented any attempt to excavate openly, and it was necessary to carry on my researches without exciting the suspicion of the Mussulman inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

A village has risen round the mosque containing the tomb. The rest of the mound is occupied by a burying ground, thickly set with Mussulman gravestones. True believers from the surrounding country bring their dead to this sacred spot, and to disturb a grave on Nebbi Yunus would cause a tumult which might lead to no agreeable results. The pretended tomb itself is in a dark inner room. None but Mussulmans should be admitted within the holy precincts, but I have more than once visited the shrine, with the sanction of my good friend, Mullah Sultan, a guardian of the mosque. A square plaster or wooden sarcophagus, entirely concealed by a green cloth embroidered with sentences from the Koran, stands in the centre of an apartment spread with a common European carpet. A few ostrich eggs and colored ta.s.sels, such as are seen in similar Mohammedan buildings, hang from the ceiling. A small grated window looks into the hall, where the true believers a.s.semble for prayer. A staircase leads into the holy chamber. It is needless to repeat that the tradition which places the tomb on this spot is a mere fable.[242]

The village of Nebbi Yunus is inhabited by Turcoman families. Some of their dwellings occupy a considerable s.p.a.ce. Hearing that the owner of one of the largest wished to make serdaubs, or underground apartments for summer, I offered, through my agent, Toma Shishman, to dig them for him, on condition that I should have all the relics and sculptures discovered during the excavations. By these means I was able to examine a small part of the mound.

After a few days' labor, the workmen came to the walls of a chamber. They were panelled with inscribed, but unsculptured, alabaster slabs. The inscriptions merely contained the name, t.i.tles, and genealogy of Essarhaddon, such as were found on the bulls and sphinxes of the south-west palace at Nimroud. Several bricks and fragments of stone were also obtained from the ruins, but they all bore the same inscription. No remains whatever of more ancient building, and no relics of an earlier period were discovered during my residence at Mosul in the mound of the Prophet Jonah.

Since my return to England an inhabitant of the village, whilst digging the foundations of his house, uncovered a pair of colossal human-headed bulls, and two figures of the a.s.syrian Hercules slaying the lion, similar to those in the Louvre. He communicated his discovery at once to the English Vice-consul, who informed Mr. Hodder, the artist sent out by the Trustees of the British Museum. Through some neglect these interesting specimens were not visited and secured before others became acquainted with their existence, and endeavored to obtain possession of them. The Turkish authorities, of course, settled the claims of the rival antiquaries by seizing the sculptures for themselves. On several grounds this is much to be regretted. These remains will, however, probably prove to be of the time of Essarhaddon.

Three miles to the north of the inclosure of Kouyunjik, and on the bank of the Tigris, is a village called Shereef-Khan. Near it are several mounds.

The largest, though much inferior in size to the great ruins of a.s.syria, is distinguished, like those of Nimroud and Khorsabad, by a conical heap at one corner. For some time excavations were carried on in this mound under my superintendence, and discoveries of interest were made in it. At a small depth beneath the surface of the soil are the remains of a building. The walls of the chambers are of sun-dried bricks, but several slabs of alabaster, and painted and inscribed bricks were found in the ruins. A broad flight of alabaster steps appeared to connect an upper with a lower part of the edifice.

The inscriptions upon the bricks contain the names of Sargon and Sennacherib. Those of the former king read, "Sargon, king of a.s.syria, the city (or place) of the mound of the fort of Sargon I called it; a temple of the sun ... near it I built." Other bricks mention a temple dedicated to Mars, or some other a.s.syrian deity.[243] There are several smaller mounds in the neighbourhood, which have not been explored.

At Nimroud the excavations had been almost suspended. A few Arabs, still working in the centre of the mound, had found the remains of sculptured walls, forming part of the edifice previously discovered there. The lower half of several colossal figures, amongst them winged men struggling with lions and mythic animals, had been preserved.

A few small objects of interest were discovered in different parts of the ruins, and some additional rooms were explored in the north-west and south-east palaces. In none of them, however, were there sculptures, or even inscriptions, except such as were impressed on bricks. The bricks found amongst its ruins prove that it was built by the grandson of Essarhaddon, who must consequently have been one of the last of the a.s.syrian kings.

Several tombs containing vases, beads and ornaments, were discovered above the centre palace. A few large earthen jars from different parts of the mound, a number of small cups of peculiar shape from the ruins of the upper chambers, other pottery of various kinds, and some rude figures in baked clay, were the princ.i.p.al relics found during the excavations at Nimroud.

In the north-west palace was also discovered a duck, with its head turned upon its back, in greenstone, similar to that in white marble engraved in the first series of the Monuments of Nineveh. These two objects are of considerable interest, as we learn from short inscriptions upon them, deciphered by Dr. Hincks, that they are weights of thirty mana, or half a Babylonian talent.

They have been examined at the mint, and are found to weigh 40 lb. 4 oz. 4 dwt. 4 gr. and 39 lb. 1 oz. 1 dwt. 6 gr. The difference between them is owing to the head of one having been broken off.[244]

It may be inferred that two similar figures in baked clay, inscribed with a.s.syrian numerals, from the same ruins, and others of small size in agate, onyx, and other hard materials, are likewise weights, probably parts of the talent or of the mana. It is also highly probable that the curious series of bronze lions discovered at Nimroud during my first researches were used for a like purpose. Since the coating of green rust has been removed from them, they are found in several instances to bear two short inscriptions, one in cuneiform characters with the name of Sennacherib, the other in Phoenician, or cursive Semetic letters, accompanied by parallel lines or notches cut in the bronze. Dr. Lepsius has recently published a bas-relief from an Egyptian tomb, representing a man weighing rings of gold or silver, with weights in the form of a bull's head, and of a seated lion with a ring on its back, precisely similar to those from Nineveh, now in the British Museum.

The engraved cylinders or gems, of which a large collection was brought by me to England, form an important as well as an interesting cla.s.s of a.s.syrian and Babylonian antiquities. They vary in size, from about two inches to a quarter of an inch, and are either circular, or barrel-shaped, or slightly curved inwards. They are usually of lapis-lazuli, rock-crystal, cornelian, amethyst, chalcedony, agate, onyx, jasper, quartz, serpentine, sienite, oriental alabaster, green felspar, and haemat.i.te. The workmanship varies in different specimens, that of some being of considerable sharpness and delicacy, and that of others so coa.r.s.e as scarcely to enable us to recognise the objects engraved upon them. The subjects are generally either religious or historical, usually the former, and on many are short inscriptions in the cuneiform character. These cylinders belong to several distinct periods. The most ancient with which I am acquainted are those of the time of the kings who built the oldest edifices. .h.i.therto discovered at Nineveh. The subjects are usually the king in his chariot discharging his arrows against a lion or wild bull, warriors in battle, the monarch or priests in adoration before the emblem of the deity, the eagle-headed G.o.d, winged bulls and lions, and other mythic animals, accompanied by the common a.s.syrian symbols, the sun, the moon, the seven stars, the winged globe, the sacred tree, and the wedge or cuneatic element.

The next in order of date are those of the time of Sargon and his successors. To this period belong the cylinder with the fish-G.o.d, and that which I believe to be the signet of Sennacherib himself, described in a previous part of this work.[245] A very fine specimen, cut in agate, represents an a.s.syrian G.o.ddess, perhaps Astarte, or the Moon, surrounded by ten stars, with a dog seated before her. In front of her is the moon's crescent, and a priest in an att.i.tude of adoration. A tree and a rampant goat, both common a.s.syrian symbols, complete the group. On others of the same age we find the G.o.ds represented under various forms, the king and priests worshipping before them, altars and various signs peculiar to the period, and the usual mythic emblems.

The pure Babylonian cylinders are more commonly found in European collections than the a.s.syrian. They are usually engraved with sacred figures, accompanied by a short inscription in the Babylonian cuneiform character, containing the names of the owner of the seal and of the divinity, under whose particular protection he had probably placed himself. They are usually cut in a red iron ore or haemat.i.te, which appears to have been a favorite material for such objects. Many specimens, however, are in agate, jasper, and other hard substances.

A cla.s.s of cylinders of very rude workmanship, and usually in haemat.i.te, are probably of the latest Babylonian period. Upon them are usually found the figures of various deities, and especially of Venus, sometimes represented with the waters of life flowing from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

A few cylinders and gems, a.s.syrian in character, are inscribed with Semetic letters, resembling the Phoenician and cursive Babylonian. They are rare, and have chiefly been found, I believe, in ruins on the banks of the Euphrates to the north of Babylon, near Hit and Ana. I would attribute them, therefore, to the Semetic population which inhabited the districts on the eastern borders of the Syrian desert. They appear to belong to various periods, from the time of the lower a.s.syrian dynasty (of which three fine specimens are in possession of Captain Jones of Baghdad) to that of the Persian occupation of Babylonia.

Persian cylinders frequently bear an inscription in the cuneiform character peculiar to the monuments of the Achaemenian dynasty. The most interesting specimen of this cla.s.s is the well-known gem of green chalcedony in the British Museum, on which is engraved king Darius in his chariot, with his name and that of his father. This was probably a royal signet. Another, in the same collection, bears the name of one Arsaces, who appears to have been a chamberlain, or to have held some other office in the Persian court. A very fine cylinder in rock crystal, brought by me to this country, and now also in the British Museum, has the G.o.d Ormuzd represented as at Persepolis, raised by two winged bulls with human heads, above an oval, containing the image of a king. The engraving on this gem is remarkable for its delicacy and minuteness.

Persian cylinders are recognised at once by the draperies of the figures, gathered up into folds, as in the sculptures of the Achaemenian dynasty, a peculiarity never found on pure a.s.syrian or Babylonian monuments; by the crown of the king; by the form of the supreme deity, or Ormuzd and by the monstrous animals, resembling the sculptures on the walls of Persepolis.

It has been conjectured that these cylinders were amulets engraved with a kind of horoscope of the owner, or with the figures of the deities who were supposed to preside over his nativity and fortunes. But it is evident from the specimens above described, that they were seals or signets to be impressed on clay and other materials on which public and private doc.u.ments were written. Herodotus states that the Babylonians were accustomed to have their signets constantly with them, as a modern Eastern always carries his seal.[246]

The seal was evidently rolled on the moist clay, at the same time as the letters were impressed.[247] The tablet was then placed in the furnace and baked. All these cylinders have been pierced, and one specimen, found by my workmen in a mound in the desert near the Sinjar, still retained its copper setting. They revolved upon a metal axis, like a garden rolling-stone.

Such then were the objects of sculpture and the smaller relics found at Nimroud and Kouyunjik. I will now endeavour to convey to the reader, in conclusion, a general idea of the results of the excavations, as far as they may tend to increase our acquaintance with the history of a.s.syria, and to ill.u.s.trate the religion, the arts, and the manners of her inhabitants.

CHAPTER XXVI.

RESULTS OF THE DISCOVERIES TO CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORY.--NAMES OF a.s.sYRIAN KINGS IN THE INSCRIPTIONS.--A DATE FIXED.--THE NAME OF JEHU.--THE OBELISK KING.--THE EARLIER KINGS.--SARDANAPALUS.--HIS SUCCESSORS.--PUL, OR TIGLATH PILESER.--SARGON.--SENNACHERIR.--ESSARHADDON.--THE LAST a.s.sYRIAN KINGS.--TABLES OF PROPER NAMES IN THE a.s.sYRIAN INSCRIPTIONS.--ANTIQUITY OF NINEVEH.--OF THE NAME OF a.s.sYRIA.--ILl.u.s.tRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE.--STATE OF JUDaeA AND a.s.sYRIA COMPARED.--POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE EMPIRE.--a.s.sYRIAN COLONIES.--PROSPERITY OF THE COUNTRY.--RELIGION.--EXTENT OF NINEVEH.--a.s.sYRIAN ARCHITECTURE.--COMPARED WITH JEWISH.--PALACE OF KOUYUNJIK RESTORED.--PLATFORM AT NIMROUD RESTORED.--THE a.s.sYRIAN FORTIFIED INCLOSURES.--DESCRIPTION OF KOUYUNJIK.--CONCLUSION.

Although ten years have barely elapsed since the first discovery of ruins on the site of the great city of Nineveh, a ma.s.s of information, scarcely to be overrated for its importance and interest, has already been added to our previous knowledge of the early history and comparative geography of the East. When in 1849 I published the narrative of my first researches in a.s.syria, the numerous inscriptions recovered from the remains of the buried palaces were still almost a sealed book; for although an interpretation of some had been hazarded, it was rather upon mere conjecture than upon any well-established philological basis. I then, however, expressed my belief, that ere long their contents would be known with almost certainty, and that they would be found to furnish a history, previously almost unknown, of one of the earliest and most powerful empires of the ancient world. Since that time the labors of English scholars, and especially of Col. Rawlinson and Dr. Hincks, and of M. de Saulcy, and other eminent investigators on the Continent, have nearly led to the fulfilment of those antic.i.p.ations; and my present work would be incomplete were I not to give a general sketch of the results of their investigations, as well as of my own researches.

I will not detain the reader by any account of the various processes adopted in deciphering, and of the steps gradually made in the investigation; nor will I recapitulate the curious corroborative evidence which has led in many instances to the verification of the interpretations. Such details, philologically of the highest interest, and very creditable to the sagacity and learning of those pursuing this difficult inquiry, will be found in the several treatises published by the investigators themselves. The results, however, are still very incomplete.

It is, indeed, a matter of astonishment that, considering the time which has elapsed since the discovery of the monuments, so much progress has been already made. But there is every prospect of our being able, ere long, to ascertain the general contents of almost every a.s.syrian record.

The Babylonian column of the Bisutun inscription, that invaluable key to the various branches of cuneiform writing, has at length been published by Col. Rawlinson, and will enable others to carry on the investigation upon sure grounds.

I will proceed, therefore, to give a slight sketch of the contents of the inscriptions as far as they have been examined. The earliest king of whose reign we have any detailed account was the builder of the north-west palace at Nimroud, the most ancient edifice hitherto discovered in a.s.syria. His records, however, with other inscriptions, furnish the names of five, if not seven, of his predecessors, some of whom, there is reason to believe, erected palaces at Nineveh, and originally founded those which were only rebuilt by subsequent monarchs. It is consequently important to ascertain the period of the accession of this early a.s.syrian king, and we apparently have the means of fixing it with sufficient accuracy. His son, we know, built the centre palace at Nimroud, and raised the obelisk, now in the British Museum, inscribing upon it the princ.i.p.al events of his reign. He was a great conqueror, and subdued many distant nations. The names of the subject kings who paid him tribute are duly recorded on the obelisk, in some instances with sculptured representations of the various objects sent. Amongst those kings was one whose name reads "Jehu, the son of Khumri (Omri)," and who has been identified by Dr. Hincks and Col.

Rawlinson with Jehu, king of Israel. This monarch was certainly not the son, although one of the successors of Omri, but the term "son of" appears to have been used throughout the East in those days, as it still is, to denote connection generally, either by descent or by succession. Thus we find in Scripture the same person called "the son of Nimshi," and "the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi."[248] An identification connected with this word Khumri or Omri is one of the most interesting instances of corroborative evidence that can be adduced of the accuracy of the interpretations of the cuneiform character. It was observed that the name of a city resembling Samaria was connected, and that in inscriptions containing very different texts, with one reading Beth Khumri or Omri.[249] This fact was unexplained until Col. Rawlinson perceived that the names were, in fact, applied to the same place, or one to the district, and the other to the town. Samaria having been built by Omri, nothing is more probable than that--in accordance with a common Eastern custom--it should have been called, after its founder, Beth Khumri, or the house of Omri. As a further proof of the ident.i.ty of the Jehu mentioned on the obelisk with the king of Israel, Dr. Hincks, to whom we owe this important discovery, has found on the same monument the name of Hazael, whom Elijah was ordered by the Almighty to anoint king of Syria.[250]

Supposing, therefore, these names to be correctly identified,--and our a.s.syrian chronology for this period rests as yet, it must be admitted, almost entirely upon this supposition,--we can fix an approximate date for the reign of the obelisk king. Jehu ascended the throne about 885 B. C.; the accession of the a.s.syrian monarch must, consequently, be placed somewhere between that time and the commencement of the ninth century B.

C., and that of his father in the latter part of the tenth.[251]

In his records the builder of the north-west palace mentions, amongst his predecessors, a king whose name is identical with the one from whom, according to the inscriptions at Bavian, were taken certain idols of a.s.syria 418 years before the first or second year of the reign of Sennacherib. According to Dr. Hincks, Sennacherib ascended the throne in 703 B. C. We have, therefore, 1121 B. C. for the date of the reign of this early king.

There are still two kings mentioned by name in the inscriptions from the north-west palace at Nimroud, as ancestors of its builder, who have not yet been satisfactorily placed. It is probable that the earliest reigned somewhere about the middle of the twelfth century B. C. Colonel Rawlinson calls him _the founder_ of Nineveh; but there is no proof whatever, as far as I am aware, in support of this conjecture. It is possible, however, that he may have been the first of a dynasty which _extended_ the bounds of the a.s.syrian empire, and was founded, according to Herodotus, about five centuries before the Median invasion, or in the twelfth century B.

C.; but there appears to be evidence to show that a city bearing the name of Nineveh stood on the banks of the Tigris long before that period.[252]

The second king, whose name is unplaced, appears to be mentioned in the inscriptions as the original _founder_ of the north-west palace at Nimroud. According to the views just expressed, he must have reigned about the end of the twelfth century B. C.

The father and grandfather of the _builder_ of the north-west palace are mentioned in nearly every inscription from that edifice. Their names, according to Colonel Rawlinson, are Adrammelech and Anaku-Merodach. They must have reigned in the middle of the tenth century B. C. We have no records of either of them.

The first king of whom we have any connected historical chronicle was the builder of the well-known edifice at Nimroud from which were obtained the most perfect and interesting bas-reliefs brought to this country. In my former work I stated that Colonel Rawlinson believed his name to be Ninus, and had identified him with that ancient king, according to Greek history, the founder of the a.s.syrian empire. He has since given up this reading, and has suggested that of a.s.sardanbal, agreeing with the historic Sardanapalus. Dr. Hincks, however, a.s.signing a different value to the middle character (the name being usually written with three), reads Ashurakhbal. It is certain that the first monogram stands both for the name of the country of a.s.syria and for that of its protecting deity. We might consequently a.s.sume, even were other proof wanting, that it should be read a.s.sur or Ashur.

I have elsewhere given a description of the various great monumental records of this king, with extracts from their contents. He appears to have carried his arms to the west of Nineveh across Syria to the Mediterranean Sea, to the south into Chaldaea, probably beyond Babylon (the name of this city does not, however, as far as I am aware, occur in the inscriptions), and to the north into Asia Minor and Armenia.

Of his son, whose name Colonel Rawlinson reads Temenbar and Divanubara, and Dr. Hincks Divanubar, we have full and important historical annals, including the princ.i.p.al events of thirty-one years of his reign. They are engraved upon the black obelisk, and upon the backs of the bulls in the centre of the mound of Nimroud. This king, like his father, was a great conqueror. He waged war, either in person or by his generals, in Syria, Armenia, Babylonia, Chaldaea, Media, and Persia.

The two royal names next in order occur on the pavement slabs of the upper chambers, on the west face of the mound of Nimroud.[253] They may belong to the son and grandson, and immediate successors, of the obelisk king.

The two names, however, have not been satisfactorily deciphered. Colonel Rawlinson reads them Shamas-Adar and Adrammelech II.; Dr. Hincks only ventures to suggest Shamsiyav for the first.