536 DISCOVERIES IN MESOPOTAMIA. 



It was in the 3'ear 1820 that Chiudius .James Rich, an ollicer of the Eng- 

 lish East India Company at Bagdad, undertook, for the recovery of his 

 health, a trip into the Kurdish ISIountains, and on his way back he 

 spent a few daj's at Mosul, the well-known commercial town on the 

 right bank of the Tigris. There the large mounds on the other side 

 of the river attracted his attention. They resembled those which he 

 had seen near Hilla on the Euphrates and which he correctly took for 

 the remains of ancient Babylon. As the southern of the two largest 

 mounds still has the official name of Nunia, and is crowned with a 

 mosque dedicated to the prophet Jonah, the hypothesis suggested itself 

 that there, opposite Mosul, lay the ruins of Nineveh, the ancient cap- 

 ital of Assyria. Rich examined the mounds. He also heard of a large 

 stone slab, engraved with representations of human figures and animals, 

 which had been found some time before, but had l)een ])roken by the 

 Turks because of religious prejudice. He was not, however, in a posi- 

 tion to continue his investigations. 



Now it happen(>d that in 1S42 Emil Botta, son of the well-known 

 Italian historian, was appointed French consul at Mosul, and was 

 encouraged by the famous orientalist, Julius von Mold — the second of 

 the four ])rothers Mohl, who are a lasting honor to thcMr native city 

 Stuttgart — to follow up the path entered upon by Rich and to begin 

 excavations in the mounds near Mosul. But neither on the southern 

 mound, Nel)i Yunus, nor on the northern, Kuy unjik, were his endeavors 

 rewarded with success. In March, 1843, a peasant of Khorsabad, a 

 village situated four hours north of Mosul, told him that in the mound 

 on which his village was built inscribed stones and similar ol)j(H'ts had 

 been found in great number. Botta thereupon began, on the 20th of 

 March, to dig in Khorsabad, and after but thrcM* days a room was 

 opened, and a few days later another, the inner walls covered with 

 alabaster slabs, on which were represented in bas-relief the campaigns 

 and hunts, the gods and priests of a king. Full of joy, Botta, on the 

 2d of May, sent to Mohl a letter, with drawings of the inscriptions 

 and sculptures. The drawings caused a lively sensation, and the French 

 Government immediately made an appropriation for further excava- 

 tions. Botta had discovered, as we now know, the palace of Sargon, 

 the conqueror of Samaria. In May, 1844, the inhabitants of the vil- 

 lage were removed, with the permission of the Sublime Porte, and 

 thereupon the excavations continued on a larger scale. New rooms 

 were continually freed from the debris, new sculptures, still exhibiting 

 traces of color, together with long-lined inscriptions, were continually 

 brought to light, and the drawings of the French painter, Eugene 

 Flandin. which were later published at the cost of the State, served to 

 raise still higher the general interest in Assyrian art and civilization, 

 which was believed irrevocably lost, and now, as if by magic, raised to 

 new life. Botta's successor, Victor Place, found, in 1852, the walls 



