Part 26 (1/2)
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 s.h.i.+shman, 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 workmans.h.i.+p 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 wors.h.i.+pping 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 workmans.h.i.+p, 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.