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Enemies of the Assyrians discharging their
Arrows behind them. (Kouyunjik.)

Head-dress of a Riding Horse
(Kouyunjik.)

and led horses. In their trappings and harness the Kouyunjik horses differed completely from those represented in the bas

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reliefs of Nimroud. Their heads were generally surmounted by an arched crest, and bells or tassels were hung round their necks; or, as at Khorsabad, high plumes, generally three in number, rose between their ears. After my departure from Mosul, Mr. Ross continued the excavations in this chamber, and found several other slabs, and an entrance formed by four sphinxes. The bas-reliefs appear to have been part of the series previously uncovered, and represented chariots, horsemen, archers, and warriors in mail. The country, in which the events recorded took place, was indicated by a river and palm trees. In front of these bas-reliefs, he discovered an immense square slab, which he conjectures to have been a dais or altar, resembling that in the great hall of the N.W. palace at Nimroud.

This was the extent of my discoveries at Kouyunjik. From the dimensions of some of the halls it is evident that the ruins are those of a building of great extent and magnificence. The mound upon which it stood was once washed by the river. Then also the edifice, now covered by the village of Nebbi Yunus, rose above the stream, and the two palaces were enclosed in one vast square by lofty walls cased with stone-their towers adorned with sculptured alabaster, and their gateways formed by colossal bulls.

As I have described the ruins as they were discovered during the excavations, it may not be here out of place to add a few words on the subject of the architecture of the Assyrians, and restore, as far as the remains will permit, the fallen palaces.

The architecture of a people must naturally depend upon the materials afforded by the country, and upon the object of their buildings. The descriptions, already given in the course of this work of the ruined edifices of ancient Assyria, are sufficient to show that they differed, in many respects, from those of any other nation with which we are acquainted. Had the Assyrians, so fertile in invention, so skilful in the arts, and

so ambitious of great works, dwelt in a country as rich in stone and costly granites and marbles as Egypt or India, it can scarcely be doubted that they would have equalled, if not excelled, the inhabitants of those countries in the magnitude of their pyramids, and in the magnificence of their rock temples and palaces. But their principal settlements were in the alluvial plains watered by the Tigris and Euphrates. On the banks of those great rivers, which spread fertility through the land, and afford the means of easy and expeditious intercourse between distant provinces, they founded their first cities. On all sides they had vast plains, unbroken by a single eminence until they approached the foot of the Armenian hills.

The earliest habitations, constructed when little progress had been made in the art of building, were probably but one story in height. In this respect the dwelling of the ruler scarcely differed from the meanest hut. It soon became necessary, however, that the temples of the gods, and the palaces of the kings, depositories at the same time of the national records, should be rendered more conspicuous than the humble edifices by which they were surrounded. The nature of the country also required that the castle, the place of refuge in times of danger, or the permanent residence of the garrison, should be raised above the city so as to afford the best means of resistance to an enemy. As there were no natural eminences in the country, the inhabitants were compelled to construct artificial mounds. Hence the origin of those vast, solid, structures which have defied the hand of time; and, with their grass-covered summits and furrowed sides, rise like natural hills in the Assyrian plains.

Let us picture to ourselves the migration of one of the primitive families of the human race, seeking for some spot favorable to a permanent settlement, where water abounded, and where the land, already productive without cultivation, promised an ample return to the labor of the husbandman. They may have followed him who went out of the land of Shinar, to found new

habitations in the north *; or they may have descended from the mountains of Armenia; whence came, according to the Chaldæan historian, the builders of the cities of Assyria. It was not until they reached the banks of the great rivers, if they came from the high lands, or only whilst they followed their course, if they journeyed from the south, that they could find a supply of water adequate to the permanent wants of a large community. The plain, bounded to the west and south by the Tigris and Zab, from its fertility, and from the ready means of irrigation afforded by two noble streams, may have been first chosen as a resting place; and there were laid the foundations of a city, destined to be the capital of the eastern world.

The materials for building were at hand, and in their preparation required neither much labor nor ingenuity. The soil, an alluvial deposit, was rich and tenacious. The builders moistened it with water, and, adding a little chopped straw that it might be more firmly bound together, they formed it into squares, which, when dried by the heat of the sun, served them as bricks. In that climate the process required but two or three days. Such were the earliest building materials; and they are used to this day almost exclusively in the same country. In Egypt, too, they were employed at the remotest period; and the Egyptians, to harass their Jewish captives, withheld the straw without which their bricks could not preserve their form and consistency.

Huts for the people were speedily raised, and roofed with the branches and boughs of trees from the banks of the river.

The inhabitants of the new settlement now sought to build a place of refuge in case of attack, or a dwelling place for their leader, or a temple to their gods. In order to raise the edifice above the plain, and to render it conspicuous among the surrounding habitations, it was erected on an artificial mound

*Genesis, x. 11.

† Xithurus and his followers: Berosus, apud Euseb. The similarity between the history of this Chaldæan hero and that of the Noah of Scripture is very singular.

constructed for the purpose of earth and rubbish, or of sun-dried bricks.*

The palaces and temples appear to have been at the same time public monuments, in which were preserved the records or archives of the nation, carved on stone. In them were represented in sculpture the exploits of the kings, and the forms of the divinities; whilst the history of the people, and invocations to their gods, were inscribed in written characters upon the walls. It was necessary, therefore, to use in the building, some material upon which figures and inscriptions could be carved. The plains of Mesopotamia, as well as the low lands between the Tigris and the hill-country, abound in a kind of coarse alabaster or gypsum. Large masses of it everywhere protrude in low ridges from the alluvial soil, or are exposed in the gullies formed by winter torrents. It yields readily to the chisel, and its color and transparent appearance are agreeable to the eye. Thus whilst offering few difficulties to the sculptor, it was an ornament to the edifice in which it was placed. This alabaster cut into slabs, from eight to ten feet high, four to six wide, and about one foot thick, served as a kind of panelling to the walls of sun-dried bricks. On the back of all the slabs, was carved an inscription recording the name, title, and genealogy of the royal founder of the edifice, and they were kept in their places and held together by iron, copper, or wooden cramps in the form of double dovetails, fitting into corresponding grooves in two adjoining slabs. The corners of the chambers were generally formed by one angular stone; and all the walls were either at right angles, or parallel to each

*Such is the custom still existing amongst the inhabitants of Assyria. When some families of a nomad tribe wish to settle in a village, they choose an ancient mound; it being no longer necessary to form a new platform, for the old abound in the plains. On its summit they erect a rude castle, and the huts are built at the foot. The same plan appears to have been followed since the Arab invasion, and perhaps long previous during the Persian occupation. There are few ancient mounds containing Assyrian ruins upon which castles, cities, or villages have not at some period been built. Such are Arbela, Tel Afer, Nebbi Yunus, &c. &c.

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