Chapter 14

Having examined the monumental remains of the Egyptians and the ancient inhabitants of Persia, the visitor, in order to complete a general impression of the sculptures of remote antiquity, should now direct his attention to the remains recently discovered on the site of ancient Nineveh and Nimroud. Most readers have read something of the history of Assyria, of the effeminate Sardanapalus, of Semiramis, and of the more fabulous Ninus. These three names are the three landmarks of Assyrian history; and the long lapses of time which separate them are shrouded in mystery, and up to late years have been filled up only by fanciful histories but slenderly based on fact. Men have written confidently on the fall of the Assyrian empire, and of its invasion by the Medes; but the discrepancies of rival authorities, who differ as much as ten centuries in their dates according to Mr. Layard, show how insufficient were the materials upon which they pretended to found histories. Where was the site of Babylon? where that of the renowned Nineveh? These questions were often mooted by antiquaries. Mounds of earth were long observed by travellers in Assyria and Babylonia; and one of these, which was formed by a mass of ruined brickwork, was heralded to the world as the remains of the tower of Babel! But the ruins of the great Assyrian capital were for a long time unobserved. For many years had travellers to modern Mosul looked with wondering eyes at gigantic mounds of earth that lay opposite the city. The first traveller who did more than take a cursory view of these mysterious hillocks was Mr. Rich, who, on his way from Kurdistan to Baghdad in 1820, crossed the river, and arrived at the mounds; visited what the inhabitants asserted to be Jonah's tomb on the summit of one of them; saw inscribed relics in the houses of the adjacent village. Among the fragments on the largest mound he picked up some bricks with cuneiform[8] characters upon them, and fragments of pottery; and on a subsequent occasion he found a small stone chair. He left these mounds without suspecting that he had been treading above the palaces of the ancient Assyrian monarchs--that he had been over ancient Nineveh. But the ground was too fruitful in remote traditions to remain altogether unexplored in this century. The lands watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates, where the early Asiatic colonies of Scripture were founded, and where Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, flourished and founded Babel, and whence, according to Scripture, Asshur went forth to build Nineveh, are interesting ground. Of these great Assyrian towns it was natural to seek some ruins. Of all these cities, however, founded so far back before authentic history begins, only Nineveh, which flourished many centuries later, and of which we have always had more authentic histories than those of any other Assyrian city, attained to a comparatively modern prosperity and renown. The records of this magnificent city, from which historians have derived their information, describe its walls as reaching no less than two hundred feet in height, and broad enough to be a chariot-way. These walls were sixty miles in circumference, and guarded by fifteen hundred towers; and in the eighth century before the Christian era the city is estimated to have included a population of more than half a million souls. But many centuries before this, Nineveh was a wonderful city, of which the great monarch Ninus was king, and of which his celebrated wife, Semiramis, was afterwards queen. Ninus is the reputed founder of the Assyrian empire, and to him the magnificence of the capital is chiefly attributed. He is the Sesostris of Assyrian history, and is supposed to have flourished about twelve centuries before our era. The names of many Assyrian monarchs occur in the Sacred Writings: Sennacherib, who, seven centuries before our era, besieged Jerusalem and invaded Judea; and Shalmanasaar, who carried away the ten tribes of Israel. Later, the sovereignty of the Assyrian nation was transferred to Babylon by Nebuchadonosor; and afterwards the Medes and Babylonians laid the magnificent Nineveh in ruins, over which, many centuries afterwards, Herodotus wandered wonderingly, and endeavoured to glean from the pitiful wreck an idea of the bygone glory. The centre of the ancient Assyrian empire was the present Turkish province of Mosul; and hereabouts the researches of travellers have therefore been concentrated. Opposite Mosul, the capital of the province, are the two mounds which Mr. Rich hastily explored in 1820. These mounds have long formed the subject of animated controversies; but it was not before the year 1842 that any serious attempt was made to penetrate beneath the grass that covered them. In this year M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, made some insignificant opening, but without discovering any remarkable remains; and rumours having reached him from Khorsabad, a few miles off, of some remains there, he caused some vigorous excavations to be made there, and, aided by his government, contrived to lodge an excellent collection of Assyrian sculptures in the Louvre. About this time Mr. Layard was travelling through the Turkish Asiatic provinces; and in the course of his wanderings paid considerable attention to the mounds situated at Nimroud and near Mosul. Convinced that under these hillocks lay precious relics of antiquity, he procured an official letter to the Pasha of Mosul, and in 1845 repaired to Nimroud, and hired Arabs to make excavations in the mounds there. Even the first day's search disclosed valuable slabs ornamented with bas-reliefs and inscriptions in the cuneiform character, of the remotest antiquity, dating so far back as nineteen centuries before our era, and conjectured to be part of the ruins of the chief palace of Nimroud, destroyed about twelve centuries before our era. If so, this point was the original centre of the great city of Nineveh--that part said to have been built by Asshur; while the surrounding mounds of Mosul, Khorsabad, and Kouyunjik, cover ruins of a later date. Of Mr. Layard's discoveries in Assyria, that room, which the visitor should now enter (called the NIMROUD ROOM), is full. The room, as the visitor will at once perceive, is divided into eleven compartments--the first being that to the left on entering. Here he will begin his inspection of

ANCIENT ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE.

The first slabs to which the visitor will direct his attention in the compartment (1), are from the north-west edifice, excavated from the Nimroud Mound, which Mr. Layard conjectures to be the most ancient of all the Assyrian ruins, dating, as we have stated, so far back as nineteen centuries before our era. On one slab the visitor will notice two standing draped figures, divided by the sacred tree, or tree of life, generally worshipped in the East, and adhered to in the religious systems of the Persians, here more like trellice-work than a tree, holding chaplets in their hands; on two other slabs figures with the sacred tree; and on a fourth we recognise the symbol of royalty among the ancient nations of Asia Minor, the umbrella borne by an eunuch over a monarch, who is represented returning from the chase, to the airs played by two musicians. Five figures are respectfully meeting him, and a dead animal lies at his feet. These specimens of the state of art in Asia, twenty-seven centuries ago, may well excite the curiosity of all classes of spectators. Proceeding to the second compartment, the visitor will find eight more slabs, the first of which from the north-west edifice, represents a battle-piece. Here warriors are discharging their arrows, the king with the winged symbol of divinity in a circle above him is proceeding at full gallop, and a dead figure lies near him pierced with arrows. This scene is continued on the second slab, where there are two chariots, each containing two figures, and one decorated with the ferouher, or divine symbol. A siege is represented upon the third slab. Here the besiegers are applying the battering ram; figures are falling from the walls, while from the three tiers of battlements the besieged are vigorously discharging arrows. The visitor will notice the figures of two bow-men on the fourth slab, before a lake, with part of a tower in the distance, and the next three slabs have representations of the fall of the city, picturesquely indicated. The deserted battering rams stand near the walls; female prisoners are leaving the town, drawn by three oxen; eunuchs are driving away the cattle of the vanquished, and conducting prisoners with their hands bound.

The third compartment is occupied with slabs, the sculptured subjects of which closely resemble those just described, except that marked 7, where the king, in his chariot, is hunting the lion. He has had some success, as one royal beast lies dead under his horse's feet, and another is pierced by four arrows.

The fourth compartment contains some interesting slabs. The first two represent one continuous subject. First, the visitor will notice the figure of an Assyrian monarch, with his chariots and attendants behind him, holding up arrows in token of peace to an advancing group, the first figure of which is addressing the king, while on one side a eunuch is introducing four captives. The two following slabs present illustrations of the crossing of a river. A boat, in which the royal chariot containing the king is deposited, is being dragged by two men ahead, while others are rowing, and behind follow horses and smaller boats. In their delineations of battles, the Assyrians were sagacious, since they vividly pourtrayed the horrors of war, by carving dead figures in the back ground, with birds preying upon them, even before the fray is over. Of this kind of vivid representation the visitor has a specimen on the next slab; where, while warriors are discharging their arrows, a dead soldier is being devoured by a bird in the back-ground, while another, as a pleasant suggestion of the impending fate of the survivors, hovers above their heads. The passage of troops over mountainous country, or through jungle, is the subject illustrated in the two following slabs (6,7); these are from Khorsabad, and include an inscription with the name of the monarch of that locality. Two slingers appear on the eighth slab, with archers attacking. On the next slab (9) enemies are represented in full flight, with a chariot containing two figures in hot pursuit: and on the last slab in this compartment, a city, with four battlemented towers is represented, with women standing between the towers, and chariots outside the walls.

Some curious fragments of large figures are included in the fifth compartment. First, there is a bearded head covered with a horned cap; also, the bust of a figure with the conical cap of the Assyrians: then the head of a figure, with traces of paint yet upon it, crowned with a tiara of rosettes. Here also is a fragment representing a king attended by a strange symbolical winged figure holding the popular fir-cone in his right hand, and in his left a basket, of which the visitor will remark a perfect specimen presently. The examination of these fragments will conduct the visitor to the end of the room, and before turning to examine the contents of the opposite compartments, he should pause to notice an obelisk placed hereabouts, which was dug from the centre of the great mound at Nimroud. It is seven feet in height, and is inscribed elaborately in the cuneiform character. On its surface are also engraved representations of various animals bearing presents.

The visitor will now turn and proceed back towards the door, examining, by the way, the compartments on his left hand.

The first of these, or the sixth compartment, contains, in addition to the fragments of figures including the head and shoulders of a king, and the upper part of an eunuch, two slabs (1,2) upon which is represented that fruitful subject of the Assyrian sculptor's chisel, the siege of a castle. The castle, which is represented in the middle of the battle-piece, and at the water's edge, is attacked by soldiers on all sides. The vigour of the assailants is well described. On the left the king directs the attack, with weeping women behind him; the walls are being scaled by ladders; the besieged are hurling stones from the ramparts, and casting fire upon a tower and ram, while the assailants are quenching the flames with water, and two figures are quietly picking holes in the walls in another direction. Hereabouts the visitor should notice, placed against the window, a pastoral subject--a man driving cattle. Upon the next slab, a war chariot in full speed, passing over a dead lion, is represented; and on the sixth and last slab of the compartment is another battlepiece. Here the besieged castle is surrounded by water; one of the besieged is holding arrows aloft in token of peace, while figures, on inflated skins, swim towards the walls, and soldiers from the banks are aiming arrows at them.

The fragments in the seventh compartment may be easily understood from the descriptions of previous slabs.

The eighth compartment contains some remains which demand particular notice. The first slab introduces us to a knowledge of the interiors of Assyrian dwellings. Here the interior of a building is represented divided into four distinct compartments, and exhibiting various people at their several household duties. We have even a glimpse at an Assyrian groom, who, in an adjoining building, is cleaning a horse. Prisoners are introduced even here, in this domestic scene, conducted by a warrior to an eunuch; and in the distance are soldiers, with lions' skins, dancing to the vibrations of a guitar. The second slab is a continuation of the first. Here men are mounted in war chariots, while others holding the heads of their enemies in their hands are on foot: and a bird, grasping in its claws a human head, soars above. That slab marked 3, and placed against the window hereabouts, was extracted from the centre of the great mound of Nimroud. Here camels, preceded by a woman, are pourtrayed. The slab marked 5 bears the representation of an Assyrian divinity, with four wings, the head surmounted by the conical cap with two horns, and the left hand holding a circlet of beads. A winged figure occurs also on the sixth slab of this compartment, holding a bearded ear of corn in one hand, and a goat in the other. The slabs of the ninth compartment have also representations of winged figures. The fourth, with the eagle head, and holding a fir-cone and a basket. This figure is thus described by Mr. Layard: "A human body, clothed in robes similar to those of the winged men already described, was surmounted by the head of an eagle or of a vulture. The curved beak, of considerable length, was half open, and displayed a narrow-pointed tongue, on which were still the remains of red paint. On the shoulders fell the usual curled and bushy hair of the Assyrian images, and a comb of feathers rose on the top of the head. Two wings sprang from the back, and in either hand was the square vessel and fir-cone. In a kind of girdle were three daggers, the handle of one being in the form of the head of a bull. They may have been of precious metal, but more probably of copper, inlaid with ivory or enamel, as a few days before a copper dagger-handle, precisely similar in form to one of those carried by this figure, hollowed to receive an ornament of some such material, had been discovered in the S.W. ruins, and is now preserved in the British Museum. This effigy, which probably typified by its mythic form the union of certain divine attributes, may perhaps be identified with the god Nisroch, in whose temple Sennacherib was slain by his sons after his return from his unsuccessful expedition against Jerusalem; the word Nisr signifying, in all Semitic languages, 'an eagle.'"

The slabs arranged in the tenth compartment are interesting. On the first, two horsemen, whose peaked helmets suggest that they are Assyrians, are charging another horseman with their spears. Behind is a bird carrying off the entrails of the killed. The second slab, covered with an inscription, formed part of the northwest palace. Winged figures are traceable on other slabs in this compartment; and in the centre the visitor should remark the only Assyrian statue yet discovered. It is a seated figure, headless. Between the tenth and eleventh compartments are placed some painted bricks, used in adorning the interior of Assyrian edifices. The eleventh and last compartment contains two slabs, on the first of which is a monarch holding two arrows in token of peace. Having fully examined these objects, the visitor has done with the Nimroud room. Of the romantic stories connected with the researches for the invaluable fragments it contains, we should be glad to give the reader a faint sketch. How Mr. Layard struggled against all kinds of difficulties; slept in hovels not sheltered from the rain; used his table as his roof by night; rode backwards and forwards from Nimroud to Mosul to expostulate with the vexatious interferences of a tyrannical old pasha; cheered the labours of his superstitious workmen; celebrated the discovery of certain remains with substantial feastings and music: made peace with a wandering Arab who threatened to rob him: these, and a thousand other adventures, recorded in his narrative of his discoveries, give an additional zest to the curiosity with which visitors enter this Nimroud room.

And now the visitor may make his way back to the great entrance-hall of the Museum, where his third visit should close. In the hall are deposited four colossal specimens of sculpture from Nimroud. The first of these, to which the visitor should direct his attention, is a colossal figure of a winged human-headed bull, found by Mr. Layard at the portal of a door at Nimroud. Of the discovery of this marvellous specimen of ancient Assyrian art, Mr. Layard gives a graphic account:--"I was returning to the mound, when I saw two Arabs urging their mares to the top of their speed. On approaching me, they stopped. 'Hasten, O Bey!' exclaimed one of them, 'hasten to the diggers; for they have found Nimrod himself. Wallah! it is wonderful, but it is true! we have seen him with our eyes. There is no god but God!' and both joining in this pious exclamation, they galloped off, without further words, in the direction of their tents. On reaching the ruins I descended into the new trench, and found the workmen, who had already seen me as I approached, standing near a heap of baskets and cloaks. Whilst Awad advanced and asked for a present to celebrate the occasion, the Arabs withdrew the screen they had hastily constructed, and disclosed an enormous human head, sculptured in full out of the alabaster of the country. They had uncovered the upper part of a figure, the remainder of which was still buried in the earth. I saw at once that the head must belong to a winged lion or bull, similar to those of Khorsabad and Persepolis. It was in admirable preservation. The expression was calm, yet majestic; and the outline of the features showed a freedom and knowledge of art scarcely to be looked for in works of so remote a period. I was not surprised that the Arabs had been amazed and terrified at this apparition. It required no stretch of imagination to conjure up the most strange fancies. This gigantic head, blanched with age, thus rising from the bowels of the earth, might well have belonged to one of those fearful beings which are pictured in the traditions of the country as appearing to mortals, slowly ascending from the regions below. One of the workmen, on catching the first glimpse of the monster, had thrown down his basket, and had run off towards Mosul as fast as his legs could carry him." The marvellous fidelity and power with which this, and the colossal human-headed bull are executed, must astonish the most uninstructed observer. For an account of the marvellous labour at the cost of which these colossal Assyrian works were conveyed from Asia Minor to the British Museum, we must refer the reader to Mr. Layard's excellent condensed account of his researches, published by Mr. Murray. And with the contemplation of these mysterious monuments of the past, the visitor should close his third visit to the national Museum.

He may usefully recapitulate the points of his present visit. He has been travelling for hours amongst the wrecks of the remote past. Over vast tracts of land, where now the Turk lazily dreams away the hours, or moves only to destroy the remains of the ancient civilisation of his Asiatic provinces. Throughout this, his third visit, the visitor has been exploring the revelations of the past, written upon the face of Turkish provinces. The bigotry with which the explorers of Thebes, Nimroud, and Xanthus had to contend, is written in their histories of their labours. How when the human-headed bull was disclosed by the pick-axes of the Chaldaeans, the Arabs scampered off, and how all the natives thought that Nimroud himself--the mighty hunter--was rising grimly from the earth, are points in the discovery of this treasure which all should read. The vigour with which English and French explorers have possessed themselves of the treasures of ancient Egypt, the master-pieces from the Parthenon, the strange stone revelations of Lycia, and the majestic colossi of ancient Assyria, contrasts forcibly with the indolence of the Turk, who sat at hand to wonder at the enthusiasm of his Christian visitors. No more pitiful exhibition of a national character could be furnished by any passage in the history of the world than that which describes the ignorant and superstitious Turk grinding the sculpture of the Parthenon into mortar for his dwelling house. Truly, in all respects, is this a matter to be pondered by the general visitor, as he retreats from the national Museum for the third time. He has not passed an idle day here, wandering amid sphinxes, and tombs, and temples, and ancient gods. From the confusion he may gather something that shall not be altogether a useless subject for reflection as he wanders homewards. He may link himself with the remote past, recognise the elements of modern society in these stone revelations of the remote history of the world, feel the vibration of the great human heart coming to him even from the bowels of Egypt's pyramids. There he has their family histories written on their tombstones by weeping relatives; their religion, with all its debasing idolatry, strong in death, exhibiting pleasantly the firmness of their faith; splendid sarcophagi tardily wrought from massive rock, yet perseveringly accomplished in the strong conviction that the dead would shake off the mummy bandages, discharge the natron from their pores, reclaim their scattered intestines, pass the brain back through the nose into the skull, and once more feel quickening blood in the veins. Proudly men of the passing century look back upon all this worship of animals, upon the Egyptian Anubis, and the intestine genii with their animal heads; but even here, in this field of speculation, where the historian's hand wanders unsteadily about his page, and all wears a mythical air, pulses of human emotion are felt that assure us of the remote past. Strange that the chief chapters of ancient Egypt's history should have been written for moderns by her undertakers!

END OF THIRD VISIT.

VISIT THE FOURTH.