By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 181 



the transport of the colossal human-headed biiUs from the quarry to the palace 



Here we see the huge block placed upon a rude sledge and conveyed along 

 level ground by vast bodies of labourers disposed in gangs, and working under 

 taskmasters who use their rods upon the slightest provocation. The sledge was 

 an enormous wooden boat-like structure, and the ponderous mass it contained 

 was cased with an openwork of spara or beams, which crossed each other at 

 right angles, and were made perfectly tight by means of wedges. To avert the 

 great danger of the mass toppling over sideways, ropes were attached to the top 

 of the casing, at the point where the beams crossed one another, and were held 

 taut by two parties of labourers, one on either side of the statue. Besides 

 these, wooden forks or props were applied on either side to the second horizontal 

 cross-beams, held also by men, whose biisiness it would be to resist the least 

 indication of the huge stone to lean to one side more than to the other. The front 

 of the sledge on which the colossus stood, was curved gently upwards to facilitate 

 its sliding along the ground, and to enable it to rise with readiness upon the 

 rollers, which were continually placed before it by labourers just in front; 

 while others following behind gathered them up when the bulky mass had 

 passed over thetn. The motive power was applied in front by four gangs of 

 men who held on to four large cables, at which they pulled by means of small 

 ropes or straps fastened to them, and passed under one shoulder and over the 

 other, an arrangement which enabled them to pull by weight as much as by 

 muscular strength. The cables appear to have been of great strength and are 

 fasteued carefully to four projecting pins ; two near the front, two at the back 

 part of the sledge, by a knot so tied that it would be sure not to slip. Finally, 

 as in spite of the rollers, (whose use in diminishing friction, and so facilitating 

 progress, was evidently well understood,) and in spite of the amount of force 

 applied in front, it would have been difficult to give the first impetus to so great 

 a mass, a lever was skilfully applied behind to raise the hind part of the sledge 

 slightly, and so propel it forward, while to secure a sound and firm fulcrum, 

 wedges of wood were inserted between the lever and the groimd. The greater 

 power of a lever at a distance from the fulcrum being known, ropes were 

 attached to its upper end, which could not otherwise have been reached, and 

 the lever was worked by means of them. 



That was undoubtedly the mode, whereby, (in Assyria at least) the conveyance 

 of huge blocks of stone along level ground was efi"ected : and with reference to 

 the question how were the blocks raised up to the elevation at which we find 

 them placed ; though we have no direct evidence upon this point, yet the 

 probability is that tbey were drawn up inclined ways, sloping gently from the 

 natural groiind to the top of the platform. The Assyrians were familiar with 

 inclined ways; the "banks" of Holy Scripture [II. Kings six., 32. Isaiah 

 xxxvii., 33,] which they almost always used in their attacks on walled places, 

 and which in many cases they constructed either of brick or stone. [See Mr. 

 Layard's Monuments 2nd series. Plates 18 and 21.] The Egyptians certainly 

 employed them for the elevation of large blocks ; indeed the great stones of 

 which the pyramids were built were undoubtedly raised from the alluvial plain 

 to the rocky platform on which they stand, in this way. [Herodotus ii. 124. 

 Compare Sir Gardner Wilkinson's note in Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii, p. 200.] 



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