Part 28 (2/2)
Although no remains or even traces of pillars have hitherto been discovered in the assyrian ruins, I now think it highly probable, as suggested by Mr Fergusson, that they were used to support the roof It is curious, however, that no stone pedestals, upon which wooden columns may have rested, have been found in the ruins, nor are there marks of them on the pavement I can scarcely account for the entire absence of all such traces However, unless some support of this kind were resorted to, it is ie cha the central halls, could have been covered in The great hall, or house as it is rendered in the Bible,[287] of the forest of Lebanon was thirty cubits high, upon four rows of cedar pillars with cedar beas, we have seen, cut wood in the sa Solomon; and probably used it for the sas The dimensions of this hall, 100 cubits (about 150 feet) by 50 cubits (75 feet), very much resemble those of the centre halls of the palaces of Nineveh ”The porch of pillars” was fifty cubits in length; equal, therefore, to the breadth of the hall, of which I presume it to have been an inclosed space at the upper end, whilst ”the porch for the throne where he ment
covered with cedar wood from one side of the floor to the other,” was probably a raised place beneath it, corresponding with a siuests of honor are seated in athe three parts of the building to have been arranged as I have suggested, we should have an exact counterpart of them in the hall of audience of the Persian palaces The upper part of the rooovernor of Isfahan, was divided fronificent hall by columns, and his throne was a raised place of carved ork adorned with rich stuffs, ivory, and other precious materials
Suppliants and attendants stood outside the line of pillars, and the officers of the court within Such also reat halls in the assyrian edifices
That the Ninevite palaces had more than one story, at least in soer be doubted The inscriptions appear to describe distinctly the upper rooms, and at Kouyunjik, as it has been seen, an inclined as discovered leading to them Without there had been an upper structure, it would be impossible to account for the enor chiefly of res, over the ruins of Kouyunjik and Khorsabad These upper rooms were probably built of sundried bricks and wood, but principally of the latter material, andstaircases, as in the temple of Solomon, as well as by inclined ways The roofs were flat, as those of all Eastern houses are to this day; and, as suggested by Mr Fergusson,[288] they may have been crowned by a wooden talar, or platform, and altars upon which sacrifices were offered,--”The houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings to other Gods”[289]
I have already described the internal decorations of the assyrian palaces,[290] and have little more to add upon the subject The walls of Kouyunjik were more elaborately decorated than those of Nimroud and Khorsabad Almost every chamber explored, and they amount to above seventy, was panelled with alabaster slabs carved with nuures and with the minutest details Each room appears to have been dedicated to soe of the king himself In fact, the walls recorded in sculpture what the inscriptions did in writing,--the whole history of Sennacherib's reign, his great deeds in peace as well as in war It will be re is frequently represented taking an active part in war, slaying his eneed city, he is never represented at Kouyunjik otherwise than in an attitude of triu the captives and the spoil Nor is he ever seen torturing his prisoners, or putting them to death with his own hand
There were chambers, however, in the palace of Sennacherib, as well as in those of Nimroud and Khorsabad, whose walls were simply coated with plaster, like the walls of Belshazzar's palace at Babylon[291] They ures of ns; or they , as the chareat edifices of Babylon Gilding, too, appears to have been extensively used in decoration, and soold, like the cherubim in Solomon's temple[292]
At Kouyunjik, the pavement slabs were not inscribed as at Nied bulls at some of the entrances, were carved with an elaborate and very elegant pattern The doors were probably of wood, gilt and adorned with precious ates of the temple of Jerusalest the ruins were foundan inscription in these words: ”Sennacherib, the great king, king of assyria, brought this stone from the distant mountains, and used it for the sockets of the pillars of the doors of his palace”
To ward off the glare of an Eastern sun hangings or curtains of gay colors and of richthe ceiling, or to wooden poles raised for the purpose, as in the palaces of Babylon and Shushan Such hangings, as we have seen, appear to be described in the tablets of king Nebuchadnezzar The frontispiece to this volume will enable the reader to understand how they were used This engraving fro, usson, represents the Eastern facade and the great entrance to the palace of Sennacherib, as they are supposed originally to have been The lower part of the building actually exists, and is drawn to scale; the upper part of course isreether without materials to authorise some such restoration The edifice represented in the bas-relief discovered at Kouyunjik has furnished some of the architectural details, the battlemented finish to the walls is still seen at Kouyunjik and Nimroud, and the various decorations introduced in other places are all taken from assyrian round, are from a bas-relief at Khorsabad The sculptures at the sides of the steps are those fro of the platform is that of the basement of the tower at Nimroud The lions, assyrian in character, are placed on the steps conjecturally, and the steps then upon the pavement is found on slabs at the entrances at Kouyunjik
The excavations carried on at Ni the last expedition have enabled s on the platforinal appearance On the artificial platforular layers of sundried bricks in some parts, and entirely of rubbish in others, but cased on all sides with solid stone s
Between each was a terrace, paved with stone, or with large kiln-burnt bricks, from one and a half to two feet square At the north-western corner rose the great tower, the tomb of the founder of the principal palace Its basement was encased with massive masonry of stone, relieved by recesses and other architectural ornaments The upper part built of brick, was ures and mythic emblems Its suradines like the top of the black obelisk, and I would venture to crown it with an altar on whichthis toere, two small temples, dedicated to assyrian Gods One actually abutted on it, although there was no communication whatever, as far as I could discover, between the interior of the two buildings; the other was about 100 feet to the east They were both adorned with sculptures, and had evidently been s were of cedar wood They contained statues of the Gods, and the fullest records of the reign of the king their founder, engraved on immense monoliths Between them was a way up to the platform from the north
Between the shts of steps, or inclined ways, leading up froin of the river Their sites are still marked by deep ravines They opened upon a broad paved terrace The north-west palace having been so fully described in my former work, I need only add that I have now been able to ascertain the position of its principal facade and entrance It was to the north, facing the tower, and nearly reserand approaches to Kouyunjik and Khorsabad The two gateways formed by the sphinxes with the hurand centre portal to which they were united on both sides, as in Sennacherib's palace, by colossal figures of hued priests The rereat entrance to the palace have yet been discovered, but I have little doubt from several indications in the ruins, that there was a similar facade on the river side, and that a terrace, ascended by broad flights of steps, overlooked the Tigris
To the south of the north-west palace was a third ascent to the summit of the platform, also marked by a ravine in the side of the mound Beyond it were the upper cha in succession from Sardanapalus, probably over the remains of an earlier edifice Excavationstheir ruins, show that they consisted of three distinct groups, built round a solid central reat accu must have had more than one story
The upper chambers were separated from the palace of Essarhaddon, the rand approach to the terraces Reed bulls, and of colossal figures in yellow limestone, were found in the ravine
Essarhaddon's palace was raised some feet above the north-west and centre edifices It has been so entirely destroyed by fire, and by the reround-plan of it cannot be restored In the arrangee fros hich we are acquainted The hall, above 220 feet long, and 100 broad, opening at the northern end by a gateway of winged bulls on a terrace, which overlooked the grand approach and the principal palaces, and at the opposite end having a triple portal guarded by three pairs of colossal sphinxes, which coh the plain, nificent feature in this palace It occupied the corner of the platform, and an approach of which considerable remains still exist led up frorand hall appear to have been built a nu probably answers in its general plan, more than any other yet discovered, to the descriptions in the Bible of the palace of Solomon, especially if we assume that the antechamber, divided into two parts, corresponds with the portico of the Jewish structures
The palace of Essarhaddon was considerably below the level of that of his grandson, and was separated from it by what appears, from a very deep and wide ravine, to have been the principal approach to the platform The south-east edifice was very inferior, both in the size of its apartments and in the materials es It was probably built when the e to decay, and, as is usual in such cases, the arts seem to have declined with the power of the people
Returning northwards, we come to the only traces of an approach on the eastern side of the platform, and consequently from the interior of the walled inclosure It is remarkable that there should have been but one on this face; and it is even more curious, that the only sides of the mound on which there are any remains of walls or fortifications, are the eastern and northern, where the royal residences would have overlooked the city, supposing it to have been contained within the existing ra ould, in that case, have been the open country, were left apparently defenceless
On the west side of the platforh there are undoubtedly traces of building in several places, and I think it not improbable that a temple, or some similar edifice, stood there
It only remains for me to mention the palace in the centre of the platfor whose name is believed to read Divanubar or Divanubra, but rebuilt allath-Pileser
Excavations carried on during the second expedition, brought to light the walls of a few additional cha sculptures But the edifice was so utterly destroyed by Essarhaddon, who used the -place, that it is iereat inscribed bulls and the obelisk, we know to have been of the ties, heaped up together as if ready for reed to the later
In the ra the inclosure wall of Niht towers can still be distinctly traced To the east there were about fifty, but all traces of soone
To the south the wall has alreat size or thickness on that side The level of the inclosure is here, however, considerably above the plain, and it is not iris actually flowed beneath part of it, and that the remainder was defended by a wide and deep ditch, either supplied by the s near the ruins, or by the river
At the south-eastern corner of the inclosure, is a ht, and the remains of a square edifice; they may have been a fort or castle I searched in vain for traces of gates in the walls on the northern side A high double mound, which probably marks the ruins of an entrance, was excavated; but no stone ures were discovered, as in a similar mound in the inclosure of Kouyunjik I conclude, therefore, that the gateways of the quarter of Nineveh represented by Nimroud were not, like those of the more northern divisions of the city, adorned with sculptures, but were built of the same materials as the walls, and were either arched or square, being forates of modern Arab cities, by simple beams of wood
It is evident that the inclosure of Niularly fortified, and defended by walls built for the purpose of resisting an enee That of Khorsabad was precisely sireat palace stood, formed part of the walls,--a fact for which I can scarcely offer any satisfactory explanation It would see, the te the archives and treasures of the kingdom, should have been in the centre of the fortifications, equally protected on all sides The palaces of Nimroud and Kouyunjik, built on a platform, washed by a deep and broad river, were, to a certain extent, guarded from the approach of an enemy But at Khorsabad such was not the case The royal residence overlooked the plain country, and was accessible froly fortified on the western side, of which there is no trace
Of the fortified inclosures still existing, that surrounding Kouyunjik is the most remarkable, and was best calculated to withstand the attack of a powerful and nuive a plan of the ruins from Mr Rich's survey, which will enable the reader to understand the following description[293]
[Illustration: Plan of the Inclosure Walls and Ditches at Kouyunjik]
Its for the river, including the mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebbi-Yunus (_a_), and the northern (or north-western) (_b_), are at right angles to each other, and in nearly a straight line From the eastern corner of the northern face, the inner wall (_c_) forment of a circle towards the southern end of the western, the two being only 873 yards apart at their extremities (_d_)[294] On the four sides are the remains of towers and curtains, and the walls appear to have consisted of a basement of stone and an upper structure of sundried bricks The top of the stone radines, as at Nimroud