Part 5 (1/2)
The sculptures in the palace itself had rapidly fallen to decay, and of those which had been left exposed to the air after M. Botta's departure, scarcely any traces remained. Since my former visit to Khorsabad, the French consul at Mosul had sold to Col. Rawlinson the pair of colossal human-headed bulls and winged figures, now in the great hall of the British Museum. They had stood in a propylaeum, about 900 feet to the south-east of the palace, within the quadrangle, but not upon the artificial mound. In form this small building appears to have been nearly the same as the gateway, in the walls of Kouyunjik, and like it was built of brick and panelled with low limestone slabs. From the number of enamelled bricks discovered in the ruins it is probable that it was richly decorated in color.
Trenches had also been opened in one of the higher mounds in the line of walls, and in the group of ruins at the S. W. corner of the quadrangle, but no discoveries of any interest had been made. The centre of the quadrangle was now occupied by a fever-breeding marsh formed by the waters of the Khauser.
We pa.s.sed the night at Futhliyah, a village built at the foot of the Gabel Makloub, about a mile and a half from Khorsabad. Near Futhliyah, and about two miles from the palace of Khorsabad, is a lofty conical Tel visible from Mosul, and from most parts of the surrounding country. It is one of those isolated mounds so numerous in the plains of a.s.syria, which do not appear to form part of any group of ruins, and the nature of which I have been unable to determine. Its vicinity to Khorsabad led me to believe that it might have been connected with those remains, and might have been raised over a tomb. By my directions deep trenches were opened into its sides, but only fragments of pottery were discovered.
From Futhliyah we rode across the plain to the large village of Baazani, chiefly inhabited by Yezidis. There we found Hussein Bey, Sheikh Nasr, and a large party of Cawals a.s.sembled at the house of one Abd-ur-rahman Chelibi, a Mussulman gentleman of Mosul, who had farmed the revenues of the place.
Near Baazani are a group of artificial mounds of no great size. Having examined them, and taken leave of the chiefs, I rode to the neighbouring village of Baasheikhah, only separated from Baazani by a deep watercourse, dry except during the rains. Both stand at the very foot of the Gebel Makloub. Immediately behind them are craggy ravines worn by winter torrents. In these valleys are quarries of the kind of alabaster used in the a.s.syrian palaces, but I could find no remains to show that the a.s.syrians had obtained their great slabs from them, although they appear to be of ancient date.
I have mentioned, in my former work, the a.s.syrian ruin near Baasheikhah.
It is a vast mound, little inferior in size to Nimroud, irregular in shape, uneven in level, and furrowed by deep ravines worn by the winter rains. Standing, as it does, near abundant quarries of the favorite sculpture-material of the a.s.syrians, and resembling the platforms of Kouyunjik or Khorsabad, there was every probability that it contained the remains of an edifice like those ruins. There are a few low mounds scattered around it, but no distinct line of walls forming an inclosure.
During the former excavations only earthen jars, and bricks, inscribed with the name of the founder of the centre palace at Nimroud, had been discovered. A party of Arabs and Tiyari were now opening trenches and tunnels in various parts of the mound, under the superintendence of Yakoub Rais of Asheetha. The workmen had uncovered, on the west side of the ruin near the surface, some large blocks of yellowish limestone apparently forming a flight of steps; the only other antiquities of any interest found during the excavations were a few bricks bearing the name of the early Nimroud king, and numerous fragments of earthenware.
It is remarkable that no remains of more interest have been discovered in this mound, which must contain a monument of considerable size and antiquity. Although the trenches opened in it were numerous and deep, yet the ruin has not yet probably been sufficiently examined. It can scarcely be doubted that on the artificial platform, as on others of the same nature, stood a royal palace, or some monument of equal importance.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Bulls, with historical Inscriptions of Sennacherib (Kouyunjik).]
CHAPTER VI.
DISCOVERY OF GRAND ENTRANCE TO THE PALACE OF KOUYUNJIK.--OF THE NAME OF SENNACHERIB IN THE INSCRIPTIONS.--THE RECORDS OF THAT KING IN THE INSCRIPTIONS ON THE BULLS.--AN ABRIDGED TRANSLATION OF THEM.--NAME OF HEZEKIAH.--ACCOUNT OF SENNACHERIB'S WARS WITH THE JEWS.--DR. HINCKS AND COL. RAWLINSON.--THE NAMES OF SARGON AND SHALMANESER.--DISCOVERY OF SCULPTURES AT KOUYUNJIK, REPRESENTING THE SIEGE OF LACHISH.--DESCRIPTION OF THE SCULPTURES.--DISCOVERY OF CLAY SEALS--OF SIGNETS OF EGYPTIAN AND a.s.sYRIAN KINGS.--CARTOUCHE OF SABACO.--NAME OF ESSARHADDON.--CONFIRMATION OF HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THE BIBLE.--ROYAL CYLINDER OF SENNACHERIB.
During the month of December, several discoveries of the greatest interest and importance were made, both at Kouyunjik and Nimroud. I will first describe the results of the excavations in the ruins opposite Mosul.
I must remind the reader that, shortly before my departure for Europe in 1848, the forepart of a human-headed bull of colossal dimensions had been uncovered on the east side of the Kouyunjik Palace. This sculpture then appeared to form one side of an entrance or doorway, and it is so placed in the plan of the ruins accompanying my former work.[48] The excavations had, however, been abandoned before any attempt could be made to ascertain the fact. On my return, I had directed the workmen to dig out the opposite sculpture. A tunnel, nearly 100 feet in length, was accordingly opened at right angles to the bull, first discovered, but without coming upon any other remains than a pavement of square limestone slabs which stretched without interruption as far as the excavation was carried. I consequently discontinued the cutting, as it was evident that no entrance could be of so great a width, and as there were not even traces of building in that direction.
The workmen having been then ordered to uncover the bull which was still partly buried in the rubbish, it was found that adjoining it were other sculptures, and that it formed part of an exterior facade. The upper half of the next slab had been destroyed, but the lower still remained, and enabled me to restore the figure of the a.s.syrian Hercules strangling the lion, similar to that discovered between the bulls in the propylaea of Khorsabad, and now in the Louvre. The hinder part of the animal was still preserved. Its claws grasped the huge limbs of the giant, who lashed it with the serpent-headed scourge. The legs, feet, and drapery of the G.o.d were in the boldest relief, and designed with great truth and vigor.
Beyond this figure, in the same line, was a second bull. The facade then opened into a wide portal, guarded by a pair of winged bulls, twenty feet long, and probably, when entire, more than twenty feet high. Forming the angle between them and the outer bulls were gigantic winged figures in low relief, and flanking them were two smaller figures, one above the other.
Beyond this entrance was a group similar to and corresponding with that on the opposite side, also leading to a smaller entrance into the palace, and to a wall of sculptured slabs; but here all traces of building and sculpture ceased, and we found ourselves near the edge of the water-worn ravine.
Thus a facade of the south-east side of the palace, forming apparently the grand entrance to the edifice, had been discovered. Ten colossal bulls, with six human figures of gigantic proportions, were here grouped together, and the length of the whole, without including the sculptured walls continued beyond the smaller entrances, was 180 feet. They had represented the conquest of a district, probably part of Babylonia, watered by a broad river and wooded with palms, spearmen on foot in combat with a.s.syrian hors.e.m.e.n, castles besieged, long lines of prisoners, and beasts of burden carrying away the spoil. Amongst various animals brought as tribute to the conquerors, could be distinguished a lion led by a chain.
The bulls, as I have already observed, were all more or less injured. The same convulsion of nature--for I can scarcely attribute to any human violence the overthrow of these great ma.s.ses--had shattered some of them into pieces, and scattered the fragments amongst the ruins. Fortunately, however, the lower parts of all, and, consequently, the inscriptions, had been more or less preserved. To this fact we owe the recovery of some of the most precious records with which the monuments of the ancient world have rewarded the labors of the antiquary.
On the great bulls forming the centre portal of the grand entrance, was one continuous inscription, injured in parts, but still so far preserved as to be legible almost throughout. It contained 152 lines. On the four bulls of the facade were two inscriptions, one inscription being carried over each pair, and the two being of precisely the same import. These two distinct records contain the annals of six years of the reign of Sennacherib, besides numerous particulars connected with the religion of the a.s.syrians, their G.o.ds, their temples, and the erection of their palaces, all of the highest interest and importance.
In my first work I pointed out the evidence, irrespective of the inscriptions, which led me to identify the builder of the great palace of Kouyunjik with Sennacherib.[49] Dr. Hincks, in a memoir on the inscriptions of Khorsabad, read in June, 1849, but published in the ”Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy”[50] in 1850, was the first to detect the name of this king in the group of arrowheaded characters at the commencement of nearly all the inscriptions, and occurring on all the inscribed bricks from the ruins of this edifice. Subsequent discoveries confirmed this identification, but it was not until August, 1851, that the mention of any actual event recorded in the Bible, and in ancient profane history, was detected on the monuments, thus removing all further doubt as to the king who had raised them.
Shortly after my return to England my copies of these inscriptions having been seen by Colonel Rawlinson, he announced in the Athenaeum of the 23d August, 1851, that he had found in them notices of the reign of Sennacherib, ”which placed beyond the reach of dispute his historic ident.i.ty,” and he gave a recapitulation of the princ.i.p.al events recorded on the monuments, the greater part of which are known to us through history either sacred or profane. These inscriptions have since been examined by Dr. Hincks, and translated by him independently of Colonel Rawlinson. He has kindly a.s.sisted me in giving the following abridgment of their contents.
The inscriptions begin with the name and t.i.tles of Sennacherib. It is to be remarked that he does not style himself ”King, or rather High Priest, of Babylon,” as his father had done in the latter part of his reign, from which it may be inferred that at the time of engraving the record he was not the immediate sovereign of that city, although its chief may have paid tribute to him, and, no doubt, acknowledged his supremacy. He calls himself ”the subduer of kings from the upper sea of the setting sun (the Mediterranean) to the lower sea of the rising sun (the Persian Gulf).” In the first year of his reign he defeated Merodach Baladan, a name with which we are familiar, for it is this king who is mentioned in the Old Testament as sending letters and a present to Hezekiah[51], when the Jewish monarch in his pride showed the amba.s.sadors ”the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominions that Hezekiah showed them not;” an act of vain boasting which led to the reproof of the prophet Isaiah, and to his foretelling that all this wealth, together with the descendants of its owner, should be carried away as spoil to the very city from which these amba.s.sadors came. Merodach Baladan is called king of Kar-Duniyas, a city and country frequently mentioned in the a.s.syrian inscriptions, and comprising the southernmost part of Mesopotamia, near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, together with the districts watered by those two rivers, to the borders of Susiana. This king, with the help of his Susianian allies, had recently recovered Babylon, from which Sargon, Sennacherib's father, had expelled him in the twelfth year of his reign. The battle appears to have been fought considerably to the north of that city. The result was that Sennacherib totally defeated Merodach Baladan, who fled to save his life, leaving behind him his chariots, _wagons_ (?), horses, mares, _a.s.ses_ (?), camels, and _riding horses with their trappings for war_ (?). The victorious king then advanced to Babylon, where he plundered the palace, carrying off a vast treasure of gold, silver, vessels of gold and silver, precious stones, men and women servants, and a variety of objects which cannot yet be satisfactorily determined. No less than seventy-nine cities (or fortresses), all the castles of the Chaldaeans, and eight hundred and twenty small towns (or villages), dependent upon them, were taken and spoiled by the a.s.syrian army, and the great wandering tribes ”that dwelt around the cities of Mesopotamia,” the Syrians (Arameans), and Chaldaeans, &c., &c., were brought under subjection. Sennacherib having made Belib[52], one of his own officers, sovereign of the conquered provinces, proceeded to subdue the powerful tribes who border on the Euphrates and Tigris, and amongst them the Hagarenes and Nabathaeans. From these wandering people he declares that he carried off to a.s.syria, probably colonising with them, as was the custom, new-built towns and villages, 208,000 men, women, and children, together with 7200 horses and mares, 11,063 _a.s.ses_ (?), 5230 camels, 120,100 oxen, and 800,500 sheep. It is remarkable that the camels should bear so small a proportion to the oxen and a.s.ses in this enumeration of the spoil. Amongst the Bedouin tribes, who now inhabit the same country, the camels would be far more numerous.[53] It is interesting to find, that in those days, as at a later period, there was both a nomade and stationary population in Northern Arabia.
In the same year, Sennacherib received a great tribute from the conquered Khararah, and subdued the people of Kherimmi, whom he declares to have been long rebellious (neither people can as yet be identified), rebuilding (? or consecrating) the city of the latter, and sacrificing on the occasion, for its dedication to the G.o.ds of a.s.syria, one ox, ten sheep, ten goats or lambs, and twenty other animals.
In the second year of his reign, Sennacherib appears to have turned his arms to the north of Nineveh, having reduced in his first year the southern country to obedience. By the help of Ashur, he says, he went to Bis.h.i.+ and Yasubirablai (both names of doubtful reading and not identified), who had long been rebellious to the kings his fathers. He took Beth Kilamzakh, their princ.i.p.al city, and carried away their men, small and great, horses, mares, _a.s.ses_ (?), oxen, and sheep. The people of Bis.h.i.+ and Yasubirablai, who had fled from his servants, he brought down from the mountains and placed them under one of his eunuchs, the governor of the city of Arapkha. He made tablets, and _wrote on them the laws (or tribute) imposed upon the conquered, and set them up_ in the city. He took permanent possession of the country of Illibi (Luristan ?), and Ispabara, its king, after being defeated, fled, leaving the cities of Marubishti and Akkuddu, the royal residences, with thirty-four princ.i.p.al towns, and villages not to be counted, to be destroyed by the a.s.syrians, who carried away a large amount of captives and cattle. Beth-barrua, the city itself and its dependencies, Sennacherib separated from Illibi, and added to his immediate dominions. The city of _Ilbinzash_ (?) he appointed to be the chief city in this district. He abolished its former name, called it Kar-Sanakhirba (_i. e._ the city of Sennacherib), and placed in it a new people, annexing it to the government of Kharkhar, which must have been in the neighbourhood of Holwan, commanding the pa.s.s through Mount Zagros.
In the third year of his reign, Sennacherib appears to have overran with his armies the whole of Syria. He probably crossed the Euphrates above Carchemish, at or near the ford of Thapsacus, and marched to the sea-coast, over the northern spur of Mount Lebanon. The Syrians are called by their familiar biblical name of Hitt.i.tes, the Khatti, or Khetta, by which they were also known to the Egyptians. The first opposition he appears to have received was from Luli (or Luliya), king of Sidon, who had withheld his homage; but who was soon compelled to fly from Tyre to Yavan in the middle of the sea. Dr. Hincks identifies this country with the island of Crete, or some part of the southern coast of Asia Minor, and with the Yavan ([Hebrew]) of the Old Testament, the country of the Ionians or Greeks, an identification which I believe to be correct. This very Phoenician king is mentioned by Josephus (quoting from Menander), under the name of Elulaeus, as warring with Shalmaneser, a predecessor of Sennacherib. He appears not to have been completely subdued before this, but only to have paid homage or tribute to the a.s.syrian monarchs.[54]
Sennacherib placed a person, whose name is doubtful (Col. Rawlinson reads it Tubaal), upon the throne of Luli, and appointed his annual tribute. All the kings of the sea-coast then submitted to him, except Zidkaha (compare Zedekiah) or Zidkabal, king of Ascalon. This chief was, however, soon subdued, and was sent, with his household and wealth, to a.s.syria, ----(name destroyed), the son of _Rukipti_ (?), a former king, being placed on the throne in his stead. The cities dependent upon Ascalon, which had not been obedient to his authority, he captured and plundered. A pa.s.sage of great importance, which now occurs, is unfortunately so much injured that it has not yet been satisfactorily restored. It appears to state that the _chief priests_ (?) and people of Ekron (?) had dethroned their king Padiya, who was dependent upon a.s.syria, and had delivered him up to Hezekiah, king of Judaea. The kings of Egypt sent an army, the main part of which is said to have belonged to the king of Milukhkha, (Meroe, or aethiopia), to Judaea, probably to help their Jewish allies. Sennacherib joined battle with the Egyptians, totally defeated them near the city of Al....ku, capturing the charioteers of the king of Milukhkha, and placing them in confinement. This battle between the armies of the a.s.syrians and Egyptians appears to be hinted at in Isaiah and in the Book of Kings.[55]
Padiya having been brought back from Jerusalem, was replaced by Sennacherib on his throne. ”Hezekiah, king of Judah,” says the a.s.syrian king, ”who had not submitted to my authority, forty-six of his princ.i.p.al cities, and fortresses and villages depending upon them, of which I took no account, I captured and carried away their spoil. I _shut up_ (?) himself within Jerusalem, his capital city. The fortified towns, and the rest of his towns, which I spoiled, I severed from his country, and gave to the kings of Ascalon, Ekron, and Gaza, so as to make his country small.