Discoveries among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon Part 14

We had a seven hours' ride on the delouls, leaving the caravan to follow, to the large ruin of Abou Maria,[137] pa.s.sing through Tel Afer. The Jehesh were encamped about two miles from the place. My workmen had excavated for some time in these remarkable mounds, and had discovered chambers and several enormous slabs of Mosul marble, but no remains whatever of sculpture.

A short ride of three hours brought us to Eski (old) Mosul, on the banks of the Tigris. According to tradition this is the original site of the city. There are mounds, and the remains of walls, which are probably a.s.syrian. Mosul was still nine caravan hours distant, and we encamped the next night at Hamaydat, where many of our friends came out to meet us. On the 10th of May we were again within the walls of the town, our desert trip having been accomplished without any mishap or accident whatever.

Suttum left us two days after for his tents, fearing lest he should be too late to join the warriors of the Khorusseh, who had planned a grand _ghazou_ into Nedjd. He urged me to accompany them; but I had long renounced such evil habits, and other occupations kept me in Mosul.

Finding that I was not to be persuaded, and that the time was at length come for us to part, he embraced me, crammed the presents we had made to himself and his wives into his saddle-bags, and, mounting his deloul, rode off with Mijwell towards the Desert.

CHAPTER XVI.

DISCOVERIES AT KOUYUNJIK.--PROCESSION OF FIGURES BEARING FRUIT AND GAME.--LOCUSTS.--LED HORSES.--AN a.s.sYRIAN CAMPAIGN.--DAGON, OR THE FISH-G.o.d.--THE CHAMBERS OF RECORDS.--INSCRIBED CLAY TABLETS.--RETURN TO NIMROUD.--EFFECTS OF THE FLOOD.--DISCOVERIES.--SMALL TEMPLE UNDER HIGH MOUND.--THE EVIL SPIRIT.--FISH-G.o.d.--FINE BAS-RELIEF OF THE KING.--EXTRACTS FROM THE INSCRIPTION.--GREAT INSCRIBED MONOLITH.--EXTRACTS FROM THE INSCRIPTION.--CEDAR BEAMS.--SMALL OBJECTS.--SECOND TEMPLE.--MARBLE FIGURE AND OTHER OBJECTS.

During my absence in the Desert, the excavations at Kouyunjik had been actively carried on under the superintendence of Toma s.h.i.+shman. On my arrival he described many interesting discoveries, and I hastened to the ruins, crossing in a rude ferry-boat the river, now swollen, by the spring rains, to more than double its usual size.[138]

The earth had been completely removed from the sides of the long gallery, on the walls of which had been portrayed the transport of the large stone and of the winged bulls. An outlet was discovered near its western end, opening into a narrow descending pa.s.sage; an entrance, it would appear, into the palace from the river side. Its length was ninety-six feet, its breadth not more than thirteen. The walls were panelled with sculptured slabs about six feet high. Those to the right, in descending, represented a procession of servants carrying fruit, flowers, game, and supplies for a banquet, preceded by mace-bearers. The first servant following the guard bore an object which I should not hesitate to identify with the pineapple, unless there were every reason to believe that the a.s.syrians were unacquainted with that fruit. The leaves sprouting from the top proved that it was not the cone of a pine tree or fir. After all, the sacred symbol held by the winged figures in the a.s.syrian sculptures, may be the same fruit, and not, as I have conjectured, that of a coniferous tree.

The attendants who followed carried cl.u.s.ters of ripe dates and flat baskets of osier-work, filled with pomegranates, apples, and bunches of grapes. They raised in one hand small green boughs to drive away the flies. Then came men bearing hares, partridges, and dried locusts fastened on rods. The locust has ever been an article of food in the East, and is still sold in the markets of many towns in Arabia.[139] Being introduced in this bas-relief amongst the choice delicacies of a banquet, it was probably highly prized by the a.s.syrians.

The locust-bearers were followed by a man with strings of pomegranates; then came, two by two, attendants carrying on their shoulders low tables, such as are still used in the East at feasts, loaded with baskets of cakes and fruits of various kinds. The procession was finished by a long line of servants bearing vases of flowers.

These figures were dressed in a short tunic, confined at the waist by a shawl or girdle. They wore no headgear, their hair falling in curls on their shoulders.

On the opposite walls of the pa.s.sage were fourteen horses without trappings, each horse having a simple halter twisted round its lower jaw, by which it was led by a groom. The animals and men were designed with considerable truth and spirit.

It is probable that the sculptures forming the upper end of the pa.s.sage, but now entirely destroyed, represented the king receiving this double procession. The pa.s.sage may have led to the banqueting-hall, or to a chamber, where royal feasts were sometimes held, and was therefore adorned with appropriate subjects. At its western end the gallery turned abruptly to the north, its walls being there built of solid stone-masonry. I lost all further traces of it, as the workmen were unable, at that time, to carry on the tunnel beneath an acc.u.mulated ma.s.s of earth and rubbish about forty feet thick.

As the workmen could no longer, without some danger, excavate in this part of the ruins, they had returned to the chamber already described as containing a series of bas-reliefs representing the capture and sack of a large city in the mountains, and as opening into the broad gallery on whose walls were depictured the various processes employed by the a.s.syrians in moving their colossal figures. From this chamber branched to the south a narrow pa.s.sage, whose sculptured panels had been purposely destroyed. It led into a great hall, which the workmen did not then explore. They continued for a few feet along its western side, and then turning through a doorway, discovered a chamber, from which again, always following the line of wall, they entered a s.p.a.cious apartment, completely surrounded with bas-reliefs, representing one continuous subject. The a.s.syrian army was seen fording a broad river amidst wooded mountains. The king in his chariot was followed by a long retinue of warriors on foot and on horses richly caparisoned, by led horses with even gayer trappings, and by men bearing on their shoulders his second chariot, which had a yoke ornamented with bosses and carvings. After crossing the river they attacked the enemy's strongholds, which they captured one by one, putting to death or carrying into captivity their inhabitants. The captives wore a kind of turban wrapped in several folds round the head, and a short tunic confined at the waist by a broad belt. From the nature of the country it may be conjectured that the sculptures represented a campaign in some part of Armenia, and I am inclined to identify the river with the Euphrates, near whose head-waters, as we learn from the bull inscriptions, Sennacherib waged one of his most important wars.

The slabs at the western end of this chamber were actually _curved backwards_, showing the enormous pressure that must have taken place from the falling in of the upper part of the building, by which not only the alabaster was bent, but driven into the wall of sundried bricks.

On the north side of the chamber were two doorways leading into separate apartments. Each entrance was formed by two colossal bas-reliefs of Dagon, or the fish-G.o.d. Unfortunately the upper part of all these figures had been destroyed, but as the lower remained from above the waist we can have no difficulty in restoring the whole, especially as the same image is seen entire on a fine a.s.syrian cylinder of agate in my possession. It combined the human shape with that of the fish. The head of the fish formed a mitre above that of the man, whilst its scaly back and fanlike tail fell as a cloak behind, leaving the human limbs and feet exposed. The figure wore a fringed tunic, and bore the two sacred emblems, the basket and the cone.

We can scarcely hesitate to identify this mythic form with the Oannes, or sacred man-fish, who, according to the traditions preserved by Berossus, issued from the Erythraean Sea, instructed the Chaldaeans, in all wisdom, in the sciences, and in the fine arts, and was afterwards wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.d in the temples of Babylonia. Its body, says the historian, was that of a fish, _but under the head of a fish was that of a man_, and to its tail were joined women's feet. Five such monsters rose from the Persian Gulf at fabulous intervals of time.[140]

The Dagon of the Philistines and of the inhabitants of the Phoenician coast was wors.h.i.+pped, according to the united opinion of the Hebrew commentators on the Bible, under the same form.[141] When the ark of the Lord was brought into the great temple of the idol at Ashdod, and the statue fell a second time, "the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the _fishy part_ of Dagon was left to him."[142] His wors.h.i.+p appears to have extended over Syria, as well as Mesopotamia and Chaldaea. He had many temples, as we learn from the Bible, in the country of the Philistines, and it was probably under the ruins of one of them that Samson buried the people of Gaza who had "gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their G.o.d, and to rejoice."[143] We also find a Beth-Dagon, or the house of Dagon, amongst the uttermost cities of the children of Judah[144], and another city of the same name in the inheritance of the children of Asher.[145]

The first doorway, guarded by the fish-G.o.ds, led into two small chambers opening into each other, and once panelled with bas-reliefs, the greater part of which had been destroyed. I shall call these chambers "the chambers of records," for, like "the house of the rolls," or records, which Darius ordered to be searched for the decree of Cyrus, concerning the building of the temple of Jerusalem[146], they appear to have contained the decrees of the a.s.syrian kings, as well as the archives of the empire.

I have mentioned elsewhere[147] that the historical records and public doc.u.ments of the a.s.syrians were kept on tablets and cylinders of baked clay. Many specimens have been brought to this country. The importance of such relics will be readily understood. They present, in a small compa.s.s, an abridgment, or recapitulation, of the inscriptions on the great monuments and palace walls, giving in a chronological series the events of each monarch's reign. The writing is so minute, and the letters are so close one to another, that it requires considerable experience to separate and transcribe them.

The chambers I am describing appear to have been a depository in the palace of Nineveh for such doc.u.ments. To the height of a foot or more from the floor they were entirely filled with them; some entire, but the greater part broken into many fragments, probably by the falling in of the upper part of the building. They were of different sizes; the largest tablets were flat, and measured about 9 inches by 6-1/2 inches; the smaller were slightly convex, and some were not more than an inch long, with but one or two lines of writing. The cuneiform characters on most of them were singularly sharp and well defined, but so minute in some instances as to be almost illegible without a magnifying gla.s.s. These doc.u.ments appear to be of various kinds. Many are historical records of wars, and distant expeditions undertaken by the a.s.syrians; some seem to be royal decrees, and are stamped with the name of a king, the son of Essarhaddon; others again, divided into parallel columns by horizontal lines, contain lists of the G.o.ds, and probably a register of offerings made in their temples. On one Dr. Hincks has detected a table of the value of certain cuneiform letters, expressed by different alphabetical signs, according to various modes of using them; a most important discovery: on another, apparently a list of the sacred days in each month; and on a third, what seems to be a calendar. As we find from the Bavian inscriptions, that the a.s.syrians kept a very accurate computation of time, we may reasonably expect to obtain valuable chronological tables and some information as to their methods of dividing the year, and even the day.

Many are sealed with seals, and may prove to be legal contracts or conveyances of land. Others bear rolled impressions of those engraved cylinders so frequently found in Babylonia and a.s.syria, by some believed to be amulets. The characters appear to have been formed by a very delicate instrument before the clay was hardened by fire, and the process of accurately making letters so minute and complicated must have required considerable ingenuity and experience. On some tablets are found Phoenician, or cursive a.s.syrian characters and other signs.

The adjoining chambers contained similar relics, but in far smaller numbers. Many cases were filled with these tablets before I left a.s.syria, and a vast number of them have been found, I understand, since my departure. A large collection of them is already deposited in the British Museum. We cannot overrate their value. They furnish us with the materials for the complete decipherment of the cuneiform character, for restoring the language and history of a.s.syria, and for inquiring into the customs, sciences, and, we may perhaps even add, literature, of its people. The doc.u.ments that have thus been discovered at Nineveh probably exceed all that have yet been afforded by the monuments of Egypt. But years must elapse before the innumerable fragments can be put together, and the inscriptions transcribed for the use of those who in England and elsewhere may engage in the study of the cuneiform character. It is to be hoped that the Trustees of the British Museum will undertake the publication of doc.u.ments of such importance to the history of the ancient world.

The second entrance formed by the fish-G.o.ds opened into a small chamber, whose sides had been lined with bas-reliefs; but there were no remains of inscriptions.

A few days after our return to Mosul, I floated down the river on a raft to Nimroud. The flood which had spread over the plain during my absence in the Desert, had destroyed a part of the village. The centre of the plain of Nimroud was now a large lake, and the cultivated fields were overspread with slime. The Shemutti gathered round me as I arrived, and told me of crops destroyed, and of houses swept away.

The workmen had not been idle during my absence, and discoveries of considerable interest and importance had been made in the high mound on the level of the artificial platform. The first trenches had been opened in the side of the ravine between the ruins of the tower and those of the north-west palace. A pavement of large square bricks, bearing the usual superscription of the early Nimroud king, was soon uncovered. It led to a wall of sundried bricks, coated with plaster, which proved to be part of a small temple.

I have already mentioned[148] that a superstructure of bricks rested upon the stone bas.e.m.e.nt-wall of the tower, at the north-west corner of the mound. It was against the eastern and southern faces of this upper building that the newly discovered temple ab.u.t.ted. Four of its chambers were explored, chiefly by means of tunnels carried through the enormous ma.s.s of earth and rubbish in which the ruins were buried. The great entrances were to the east. The princ.i.p.al portal was formed by two colossal human-headed lions, sixteen feet and a half high and fifteen feet long. They were flanked by three small winged figures, one above the other, and divided by an ornamental cornice, and between them was an inscribed pavement slab of alabaster. In front of each was a square stone, apparently the pedestal of an altar, and the walls on both sides were adorned with enamelled bricks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENTRANCE TO A SMALL TEMPLE, (NIMROUD.)]

About thirty feet to the right, or north, of the lion gateway was a second entrance, at each side of which were two singular figures. One was that of a monster, whose head, of fanciful and hideous form, had long pointed ears and extended jaws, armed with huge teeth. Its body was covered with feathers, its fore-feet were those of a lion, its hind legs ended in the talons of an eagle, and it had spreading wings and the tail of a bird. Behind this strange image was a winged man, whose dress consisted of an upper garment with a skirt of skin or fur, an under robe fringed with ta.s.sels, and the sacred horned hat. A long sword was suspended from his shoulders by an embossed belt; sandals, armlets, and bracelets, completed his attire. He grasped in each hand an object in the form of a double trident, resembling the thunderbolt of the Greek Jove, which he was in the att.i.tude of hurling against the monster, who turned furiously towards him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fish-G.o.d, at Entrance to small Temple (Nimroud.)]

This group appears to represent the bad spirit driven out by a good deity; a fit subject for the entrance to a temple, dedicated to the G.o.d of war.

The singular combination of forms by which the a.s.syrian sculptor portrayed the evil principle, so prominent an element in the Chaldaean, and afterwards in the Magian, religions system, cannot fail to strike the reader.

On the slabs at right angles to these sculptures, forming the outer part of the entrance, were two colossal human figures, without wings, wearing garlands on their heads, and bearing branches ending in three flowers.

Within the temple, at right angles to the entrance, were sculptured fish-G.o.ds, somewhat different in form from those in the palace of Kouyunjik. The fish's head formed part of the three-horned cap usually worn by the winged figures. The tail only reached to the waist of the man, who was dressed in the tunic and long furred robe, commonly seen in the bas-reliefs of Nimroud.

To the right of this entrance, and apparently outside the walls of the temple, was discovered one of the finest specimens of a.s.syrian sculpture brought to this country. It represents the early Nimroud king in high relief, carved on a solid block of limestone, cut into the shape of an arched frame, in the form of the rock tablets of Bavian and the Nahr-el-Kelb. The monarch wears his sacrificial robes, and carries the sacred mace in his left hand. Round his neck are hung the four sacred signs, the crescent, the star or sun, the trident, and the cross. His waist is encircled by the knotted cord, and in his girdle are three daggers. Above his head are the mythic symbols of a.s.syrian wors.h.i.+p, the winged globe, the crescent, the star, the bident, and the horned cap. The entire slab, 8 ft. 8 in. high, by 4 ft. 6 in. broad, and 1 ft. 3 in.

thick, is covered, behind and before, except where the sculpture intervenes, with an inscription, in small and admirably formed arrow-headed characters.

Unfortunately, the heat of the fire which had consumed the building, had also broken this monument into two pieces. From the carelessness shown in its transport to England, this fine specimen of a.s.syrian sculpture sustained still further injury, and the lower part is now almost destroyed.

The inscription must have contained when entire several hundred lines, and is divided on the back of the slabs into two columns. It commences with an invocation to the G.o.d Ashur, the supreme lord, the king of the circle of the twelve great G.o.ds. Then follow the names of these deities. The first-named is _Anu_ (?), the last Ishtar, probably Astarte, or the moon, and not Venus, as some have believed.[149]

After this invocation occurs the name of the founder of the north-west palace, read by Dr. Hincks, a.s.saracbal, and by Colonel Rawlinson, Sardanapalus, with a long exordium, apparently of a religious nature, which has not yet been satisfactorily deciphered. Then follows a full account of his various campaigns and wars.

The lion entrance led into a chamber 46 ft. by 19 ft. Nearly opposite to the entrance was a doorway panelled with slabs sculptured with winged figures carrying maces. The inner door led into a chamber 47 ft. by 31 ft., ending in a recess paved with one enormous alabaster slab, no less than 21 ft. by 16 ft. 7 in., and 1 ft. 1 in. thick. This monolith had been broken into several pieces probably by the falling in of the roof of the building, and had in several places been reduced to lime by the burning beams of the ceiling. The whole of its surface, as well as the side facing the chamber, was occupied by one inscription, 325 lines in length, divided into two parallel horizontal columns, and carved with the greatest sharpness and care. On subsequently raising the detached pieces, I found that the back of the slab, resting on a solid ma.s.s of sun-dried bricks, was also covered with cuneiform writing, occupying three columns. It is difficult to understand why so much labor should have been apparently thrown away upon an inscription which would remain unseen until the edifice itself was utterly destroyed. Still more curious is the fact, that whilst this inscription contains all the historical details of that on the opposite side, the records of two or three more years are added, and that the upper inscription stops abruptly in the middle of a sentence. It is possible that the builders of the temple, foreseeing its ruin, had determined that if their enemies should through malice deface their annals, there should yet remain another record, inaccessible and unknown, which would preserve the history of their greatness and glory unto all time.

The inscription on this great monolith appears to have been similar in its historical details to that on the king in the frame. I shall quote some specimens, translated by Dr. Hincks, to show the minuteness with which the a.s.syrian kings chronicled every event of their reign, and the consequent value of their historical records. It is to be remarked that, although these inscriptions are in the form of annals, the years are not mentioned.

The king generally sets out on his campaigns in one particular month, the name of which is given; probably in the autumn, when the heats of summer were over. In the beginning of his reign he collected his army, and made his first expedition into the country of Nummi, or Numi, probably Elam or Susiana, subsequently, as we shall find, called Numaki or Nuvaki. He took many cities, towns, and districts whose names have not been identified.

He slew their women, their slaves, and their children, and carried away their cattle and flocks. _Their fighting men escaped to a hill fort_ (?).

"Their houses he burned like _stubble_" (?). Many other countries to the south and south-east of a.s.syria, some of which are mentioned on the obelisk, were conquered during this campaign. The city of _Nishtun_ (?) is particularly described as one of considerable importance. He seized its king or governor, whose name reads Babou, the son of Baboua, and imprisoned him in Babylon. "At that time the cities of Nerib (their position is doubtful), their princ.i.p.al cities, he destroyed. From Nerib he departed to the city of Tushka.... A palace for his dwelling he made there, and placed _pillars_ (?) at the gates, and put a statue of ...

(probably some kind of stone) ... and set up tablets, and made a place for them in the citadel."

An account follows of the building of the north-west palace of Nimroud, which, when deciphered, will be of considerable interest, and may enable us to restore that edifice. He also built two cities on the Euphrates, _one on each bank_ (?), calling one after his own name, and the other after the name of the great G.o.d Ashur.

Numerous expeditions to countries to the north, west, and south of a.s.syria are then related in detail. Amongst them one to Carchemish, where he received the tribute of Sangara, king of the Khatti (the Hitt.i.tes or people of Syria), including a great variety of gold and silver ornaments, some apparently to be recognised by their pure Hebrew names. As few of the cities and countries conquered and visited by this king have yet been identified, and a mere repet.i.tion of the same dry details would scarcely interest the reader, I will merely give literal versions, as far as they can be given, of the history of two of the most important campaigns. They will show the style of these remarkable chronicles, and the minuteness with which events were recorded.

The first paragraph relates to the campaign of the king on the borders of the Euphrates.

"On the 22nd day of the month.... I departed from Calah (the quarter of Nineveh now called Nimroud). I crossed the Tigris. On the banks of the Tigris I received much tribute. In the city of Tabit I halted. I occupied the banks of the river Karma (? the Hermus, or eastern confluent of the Khabour). In the city of Megarice I halted. From the city of Megarice I departed. I occupied the banks of the Kabour (Chaboras). I halted at the city of _Sadikanni_ (? or Kar-dikanni). I received the tribute of the city of Kedni. From Kedni I departed to the city of ...lemmi. In the city of ...lemmi I halted. From the city of ...lemmi I departed. In the city of Beth-Khilapi I halted. The tribute of Beth-Khilapi I received, gold, silver," and many other articles, amongst which are apparently objects of clothing, or embroidered stuffs. Then follow his marches day by day to the cities of Sirki, Tzufri, Naqua-rabani, and Kindani, from each of which he received tribute in gold, silver, several objects not identified, cattle, and sheep. The inscription goes on--"The city of Kindani stands on the right bank of the river Euphrates. From Kindani I departed: on the mountain, by the side of the Euphrates, I halted. From the mountain I departed. In Beth-Shebaiya, over against Karid, I halted. The city of Karid stands on the right bank of the river Euphrates. From Bath-Shebaiya I departed: on the top of (or above) Anat I halted. Anat stands in the middle of the Euphrates" (agreeing with the position of the modern town of Ana). He then attacked and took the princ.i.p.al city of _Shadu_ (?), of the country of Suka, and the city of _Tzur_ (?), the capital of _Shadu_ (?), whose inhabitants were a.s.sisted by the soldiers of Bis.h.i.+ (a nation also alluded to in the second year of the annals of Sennacherib). Nebo-Baladan, king of Kar-Duniyas, is then mentioned, showing that the campaign was carried _down_ the banks of the Euphrates far to the south of Babylon.

The second extract is from the records of a campaign in northern Syria.

Having first crossed the Euphrates:

"From Kunulua, the capital of Lubarna, the Sharutinian[150], I departed.

The Arantu (Orontes) I crossed. On the banks of the Arantu I encamped.