Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/21

The Mesopotamian Palace. 5 was sent out to help in measuring plans and copying bas-reliefs. In June, 1845, the first Assyrian sculptures of any size that had ever left their native place for Europe were set afloat upon the Tigris, and in December, 1846, they arrived in France. In 1847 de Longperier was the first to read upon the Khorsabad remains that name of Sanson which is mentioned by none of the classic authors and only once by the Bible. 1 This discovery was of the greatest importance ; it at once gave a date to remains whose age had been previously a mere matter of guess. The most divergent hypotheses had been started — some believed the sculptures to have belonged to the remote times of Ninus and Semiramis, others thought them no more ancient than the Sassanids ; 2 it was a great point gained to make sure that their true date was the eighth century before our era. These first discoveries excited so much attention that they were sure to attract many to the task begun with such unhoped-for success by Botta. England especially, by whom all that has the slightest bearing on Jewish history is so passionately followed up, was sure to take her part. In November, 1845, M r - Layard began to excavate at Nimroud ; he carried on his work there and at Kouyundjik, until the year 1847. The adjoining map (Fig. 1) will give an idea of the relative position of the sites we shall so often have to mention. The beauty and variety of the monuments sent home by Mr. Layarcl, decided the authorities of the British Museum to intrust him with a new mission, and from 1849 to the first volume (page 34) of his collected works (A. de Longperier, Œuvres, 5 vols. 8vo. Leroux). This first volume bears for sub-title : Archéologie orientale : Monuments arabes. 1 Lettre à M. Isidore de Lowenstern sur les Inscriptions cunéiformes de V Assyrie {Œuvres, vol. i. p. 109). M. de Lowenstern had already by a kind of happy intuition hit upon the name, but without being able to give a reason for his transliteration. 2 This latter hypothesis was sustained, with more erudition, perhaps, than tact or taste, by Dr. Hœfer. A skilful historian of chemistry, he was by no means an archaeologist. He had no feeling for the differences between one style and another. See the Mémoires sur les Ruines de JVinive, addresses à V Académie des Inscriptions, par Ferd. Hœfer [20th February and 24th May, 1850] ; see especially the second paper : De I 'Age et du Caractère des Monuments découverts à Khorsabad, à Nimroud, à Kouioundjik, à Karamles et à Kaleh-Shergat, Paris, Didot, 1850. His assertions were refuted by de Longperier in the first part of his paper entitled : Antiquités assyriennes, published in 1850, in the Revue archéologique, {Œuvres, vol. i. P- 139)-