114 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



unsteadiness of putting rollers under it. Though their sailors pulled 

 up the heavy sail by running a rope through a hole in the top of the 

 mast, they had no moveable pulley fixed to the sail whereby a man 

 can raise more than his own weight/' 



Mr. Layardj in his " Nineveh and Babylon," p. 24, (1867,) gives 

 an interesting account, with illustrations, of the bas-reliefs found 

 by him at Konyunjik which represent the building of an artificial 

 mound, and the process of dragging the colossal figure to its summit. 

 " Pis some of the largest of these sculptures were full twenty feet 

 square, and must have weighed between forty and fifty tons, this 

 was no easy task when the only mechanical powers possessed by the 

 Assyrian appear to have been the roller and the lever. A sledge 

 was used similar to that already described, and drawn in the same 

 way. In the bas-relief representing the operation, four ofiieers were 

 seen on the bull, the first apparently clapping his hands to make the 

 drawers keep time, the second using the speaking trumpet, the third 

 directing the men who had the care of the rollers, and the fourth 

 kneeling down behind to give orders to those who worked the lever. 

 Two of the groups were preceded by overseers, who turned back to 

 encourage the workmen in their exertions ; and in front of the royal 

 chariot, on the edge of the mound, knelt an officer, probably the 

 chief superintentent, looking towards the king to receive orders 

 direct from him. Behind the monarch were carts bearing the cables 

 wedges, and implements required in moving the sculpture. A long 

 beam or lever was slung by ropes from the shoulders of three men, 

 and one of the great wedges was carried in the same way. In the 

 bas-relief representing the final placing of the colossal bull, the 

 figure no longer lay on its side on the sledge, but was held upright 

 by men with ropes and forked wooden props. It was kept in its 

 erect position by beams, held together by cross-bars and wedges,^ 

 and was further supported by blocks of stone or wood. On the sledge, 

 in front of the bull, stood an officer giving directions with out- 

 stretched hands to the workmen. Cables, ropes, rollers, and levers 



^ It may be remarked, that precisely the same kind of framework was used 

 in the British Museum for moving and placing the great sculptures. 



