NINEVEH And its particular REMAINS: Elegant Art Jokes
“For the greatest centuries, the hoary monuments of Egypt-its temples, its obelisks, and its tombs-have presented to the eye with the beholder strange types of sculpture and of language; the import that none could tell. The wild valleys of Sinai, too, exhibited upon their rocky sides the unknown writings of the former people; whose name and existence none could trace. On the list of ruined halls of Persepolis, and also on the rock-shewn tablets of the surrounding regions, long inscriptions in forgotten characters did actually enroll the deeds and conquests of mighty sovereigns; but none of them could read the record. Thanks to the skill and persevering zeal of scholars of the 1800s, the important thing of these locked up treasures has been found; and also the records have mostly been read. The monuments of Egypt, her paintings realistic and her painting techniques, mute for so many ages, have at length spoken out; and now our understanding of this ancient people is scarcely less accurate and extensive than our acquaintance with all the classic lands of Greece and Rome. The unknown characters upon the rocks of Sinai have been deciphered, but the meagre contents still leave us in darkness concerning their origin and purpose. The cuneiform or arrow-headed inscriptions with the Persian monuments and tablets have yielded up their mysteries, unfolding historical data of high importance; thus illustrating and confirming the few and sometimes isolated facts preserved to us in the Scriptures and other ancient writings. Of all of the works, when the progress and outcomes of these discoveries have been made known, not just one may be reproduced or made generally available in this country. The scholar who does become familiar with them, making them his or her own, must still need recourse towards the Old school.
“The work of Mr. Layard brings before us one more step of progress. Have a look at have not to do, with all the hoary ruins which have borne the brunt of centuries in the presence of the world, however with a resurrection from the monuments themselves. Oahu is the disentombing of temple-palaces from the sepulchre of ages; the recovery of the metropolis of the powerful nation from the long nights oblivion. Nineveh, the fantastic city ‘of three days’ journey,’ that was ‘laid waste, there was none to bemoan her,’ whose greatness sank when that of Rome had just begun to rise, now stands forth again to testify to her very own splendor, and also to the civilization, and power, and elegance with the Assyrian Empire. This can be said, to date, to become the crowning historical discovery from the nineteenth century. Nevertheless the century up to now, is just half elapsed.
“Nineveh was destroyed around 606 before Christ; lower than 150 years after Rome was founded. Her latest monuments, therefore,
date back no less than five-and-twenty centuries; while the first step toward her earliest is lost in a unknown antiquity. If the ten thousand Greeks marched over this plain in their celebrated retreat, (404 B.C.) they found in one part, a ruined city called Larissa; plus connection with it, Xenophon, their leader and historian, describes what are the pyramid of Nimroud has become. But he heard not the name of Nineveh; it had been already forgotten in their site; even though it appears again inside the later Greek and Roman writers. Even at that time, the widely extended walls and ramparts of Nineveh had perished, and mounds, covering magnificent palaces, alone remained in the extremities from the ancient city, or perhaps its vicinity, much as at the present day.
“Of the site of Nineveh, there is scarcely another mention, beyond the brief notices by Benjamin of Tudela and Abulfeda, until Niebuhr first viewed it and described its mounds nearly a hundred years ago. In 1820, Mr. Rich visited the spot; he obtained a few square sun-dried bricks with inscriptions, plus some other slight remains; and that we can all recall the profound impression made upon the public mind, even by these cursory memorials of Nineveh and Babylon.”
“The work of Mr. Layard brings before us one more step of progress. Have a look at have not to do, with all the hoary ruins which have borne the brunt of centuries in the presence of the world, however with a resurrection from the monuments themselves. Oahu is the disentombing of temple-palaces from the sepulchre of ages; the recovery of the metropolis of the powerful nation from the long nights oblivion. Nineveh, the fantastic city ‘of three days’ journey,’ that was ‘laid waste, there was none to bemoan her,’ whose greatness sank when that of Rome had just begun to rise, now stands forth again to testify to her very own splendor, and also to the civilization, and power, and elegance with the Assyrian Empire. This can be said, to date, to become the crowning historical discovery from the nineteenth century. Nevertheless the century up to now, is just half elapsed.
“Nineveh was destroyed around 606 before Christ; lower than 150 years after Rome was founded. Her latest monuments, therefore,
date back no less than five-and-twenty centuries; while the first step toward her earliest is lost in a unknown antiquity. If the ten thousand Greeks marched over this plain in their celebrated retreat, (404 B.C.) they found in one part, a ruined city called Larissa; plus connection with it, Xenophon, their leader and historian, describes what are the pyramid of Nimroud has become. But he heard not the name of Nineveh; it had been already forgotten in their site; even though it appears again inside the later Greek and Roman writers. Even at that time, the widely extended walls and ramparts of Nineveh had perished, and mounds, covering magnificent palaces, alone remained in the extremities from the ancient city, or perhaps its vicinity, much as at the present day.
“Of the site of Nineveh, there is scarcely another mention, beyond the brief notices by Benjamin of Tudela and Abulfeda, until Niebuhr first viewed it and described its mounds nearly a hundred years ago. In 1820, Mr. Rich visited the spot; he obtained a few square sun-dried bricks with inscriptions, plus some other slight remains; and that we can all recall the profound impression made upon the public mind, even by these cursory memorials of Nineveh and Babylon.”
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