Nineveh and Its Remains Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V. On my return to Mosul, I hastened back to Nimroud. During my absence little progress had been made, as only two men had been employed in removing the rubbish from the upper part of the chamber to which the great human-headed lions formed an entrance. The lions to the east of them (entrance d) had, however, been completely uncovered ; that to the right (No. 2) had fallen from its place, and was sustained by the opposite sculpture. Between them was a large pavement slab covered with cuneiform characters. In clearing the earth from this entrance, and from behind the fallen lion, many ornaments in copper, two small ducks in baked clay, and tablets of alabaster inscribed on both sides were discovered. Amongst the copper mouldings were the head of a ram or a bull,f several hands (the fingers closed and slightly bent), and a few flowers. The hands may have served as a casing to similar objects in baked clay, frequently found amongst the ruins, and having an inscription, containing the names, titles, and genealogy of the King, graved upon the fingers. The heads of the ducks, for they resemble that bird more than any other, are turned and rest upon the back, which is covered with cuneiform characters. Objects somewhat similar have been found in Egypt. It is difficult to determine the original site of the small tablets. They appearedto me to have been built up in the walls above t/ie slabs, or to have been placed behind the slabs themselves, and this conjecture was confirmed by subsequent discoveries. The inscription upon them resembled that on all the slabs in the N. W. palace. All these objects will be deposited in the British Museum. t This head may have belonged to the end of a chariot pole, or may have cosed the head of the bull or ram carried by the winged lion...Read More