424 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1932 



of the city as the excavation proceeds and descends from one chrono- 

 logical level to another. These air surveys now form a regular part 

 of the record of the excavations. 



EXCAVATION OF THE PALACE OF SARGON II AT KHORSABAD 



The entire region south of the Highland Zone, with the exception 

 of arid desert areas, contains city mounds of the greatest importance 

 for completing the larger picture of the developing civilizations 

 which intermingled in western Asia. Originally occupying the mid- 

 dle of the Fertile Crescent, the Assyrian civilization was a composite 

 drawn from the lowland south and the Highland Zone on the north. 

 The cities and palaces of the Assyrian emperors on the upper Tigris 

 are therefore important centers from which we may draw bodies of 

 evidence of priceless value for the study of the Kise of Man. This 

 is especially true of the palace of Sargon II at Khorsabad, about 15 

 miles north of modern Mosul and ancient Nineveh, which face each 

 other on opposite sides of the Tigris. The excavations of the insti- 

 tute at Khorsabad, following those of the French at the same site, 

 have resulted in the recovery of much additional information on the 

 architecture, besides a large series of sculptures, important both for 

 the history of art and of civilization. The most notable piece among 

 these sculptures is that of a vast winged bull which once adorned 

 an entrance of the palace. These figures were called by the Assyrians 

 and Hebrews " Cherubs," a term which was curiously misunderstood 

 by older Biblical interpreters, and early Christian art. The colossal 

 figure of the bull, equipped with wings and human head, is some 16 

 feet high and weighs 40 tons. The transportation of these pieces 

 from the upper Tigris to the Persian Gulf and thence to New York 

 was a problem of great difficulty. Even after reaching New York 

 transportation problems were not eliminated, for the figure pro- 

 jected so far on each side of a modern steel gondola freight car that 

 it would have been impossible for the car to pass through a tunnel. 

 The railways had to select a route for the bull from New York to 

 Chicago, therefore, which avoided all tunnels. He has now finally 

 reached Chicago in safety and is duly installed in the new Oriental 

 Institute building at the University of Chicago, which was opened 

 to the public on December 5, 1931. This colossal piece of oriental 

 sculpture is a mystically impressive expression of the spirit of the 

 ancient east, and graphically suggests the vast body of evidence from 

 its ancient cities, now converging from so many different points of 

 the compass on the headquarters of the Oriental Institute at Chicago. 



The organization whose far-reaching results converge on this 

 central headquarters has been made possible by the General Educa- 

 tion Board, the International Education Board, and above all by the 



