Page images
PDF
EPUB

future research into the Persian and Assyrian inscriptions.

It was from Niebuhr's plates of the cuneiform characters at Persepolis that Grotefend, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter, first deciphered the names of Darius and Xerxes, and opened the way for all further researches of this kind. On his way home from Persia, in 1765, Niebuhr passed through Bagdad and Mosul, and explored the country which surrounds those two towns.

He says:

"Of Babylon and Nineveh few indications are now to be found. These famous cities lay in marshy regions, where hewn stone was costly, and where bad materials were employed for building, which have long fallen into ruin, or have been carried off to other towns."

Niebuhr gives a fairly complete description of the mound of Babil, and identifies it with the citadel described by Greek writers. He visited Birs Nimroud, and he identifies it with the Temple of Bel, described by Herodotus and others. Our traveller says much about the inscribed clay bricks which lay about these ruins, and concludes that they contained the records of the Babylonians, such as those of which Pliny speaks. Niebuhr had no difficulty in identifying the site of Nineveh also; the natives pointed out to him a mound called Nunia, on which stood the tomb of the prophet Jonah, and another great mound called Kallah Nunia, or the fortress of Nineveh, on which stood the village of Kaindsjag, or Kouyunjik, besides the traces of the walls of the great city; he also speaks of the ruins of Nimroud, eight hours below Mosul. Here we have

[ocr errors]

a clear and intelligent description of the ancient sites, which, like the rest of the traveller's work, attracted much attention among the learned in Europe, and, above all, induced scholars to take an interest in the inscriptions found upon these famous ruins.

One of the learned priests sent out from Europe to Asiatic Turkey was the Abbé Beauchamp, VicarGeneral of Babylon in 1782. His account of his researches among the ruins of the ancient city was pub lished in the Journal des Savants, and quickly translated into English in the European Magazine of May, 1792. He visited the mound called Babel by Pietro della Valle and Otter, but named by him Makloube, or the Ruin, according to another popular designation. Besides this, he first called the attention of archæologists to a second mound near the first; he calls it Babel, but it is generally named the Kasr, or palace; some of the stamped bricks of which it is composed he extracted from their bituminous cement, and brought home to Europe. Of Birs Nimroud, which he calls Broussa, he says little, although he had seen it.

In 1794 a physician, named Olivier, was sent out by the French Government to make researches in the Turkish Empire and in Persia. He is very clear as to the site of Nineveh, and says that all modern geographers seem to agree in placing it on the east bank of the Tigris, opposite Mosul. He visited the "Fortress of Nunia," the village of Nunia, in which the tomb of Jonah stands, and the traces of the ancient walls. During his stay in the neighbourhood of Bagdad,

Olivier inspected Tak-Kesra, already identified as the palace of Ctesiphon, and made a survey of the ruins of Babylon, of which he says:---

"The ground on which the city stood, twenty leagues to the south of Bagdad, presents at first sight no trace of a town; it must be traversed in all directions before certain mounds and slight elevations can be observed, and it is seen that the soil has everywhere been disturbed. The Arabs have been busy here for twelve centuries excavating and extracting bricks, of which Cufa, Bagdad, Meshed Ali, Meshed Hossain, Hillah, and other towns have been built."

A league north of Hillah, Olivier observed the mound of Babil, which he identifies with the Temple of Belus; and he found large portions of the ancient brick walls. He was unable-as so many travellers had been before him to visit Birs Nimroud, which he knew well by report.

In 1812 the ruins of Babylon were for the first time completely examined. Claudius James Rich was appointed political resident for the East India Company at Bagdad in 1808, and his intelligence and learning soon induced him to study the antiquities of the historical region in which his official duties had placed him. In 1812 he visited the site of the great city, carefully studied the disposition of the various mounds, and measured them with equal accuracy; he was also able to collect some inscriptions on clay tablets and cylinders, which he presented to the British Museum. Ten years later Rich examined the site of Nineveh, and obtained some inscriptions on clay and stone from the mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus; the ruins of Nimroud,

too, alluded to by Niebuhr, were fully described by the British resident.

About the same time Sir Robert Ker Porter, whose work forms one of the most valuable descriptions of modern Persia, paid a visit to the ruins of Babylon in company with Rich, who was already well acquainted with them. He has given us a very full account, to which he adds notes of other old Babylonian sites around Bagdad; some of the inscriptions which he collected are still to be seen in the British Museum.

A few years later Buckingham passed through the ruins both of Nineveh and Babylon, and afterwards published a full account of them.

But we have now reached a period when the sites of these ancient cities begin to be as well known to the learned as the most familiar ruins of Europe. Since Buckingham, detailed descriptions have been given to the world by Botta, Place, Sir H. Layard, Sir H. Rawlinson, and M. Oppert; but it would be useless to examine these one by one.

Early in the present century, then, the sites of Nineveh and Babylon had been fully identified, and the greatest interest had been aroused in Europe by the descriptions of travellers, and by the antiquities which had been brought home from these historical spots, and stored in our museums. It was recognised that some great results must follow if the inscriptions could be deciphered and translated. Pliny had spoken of the ancient records, reaching back to a fabulous antiquity, which were preserved at Babylon upon baked bricks; and here

were some of these very baked bricks at the disposal of any who could read them. Most scholars, when these

inscriptions were first found, had looked upon the task as hopeless; the baked bricks from Nineveh and Babylon must remain for ever like the book with seven seals, which no man could open. But in the first years of the century the clue to their interpretation had been found. It did not come from Nineveh or Babylon; it came from the palaces of Persepolis.

E

« PreviousContinue »