43 



NINEVEH, ARCHITECTURE OK. 



NINKVKK. AIK-HITKCTl-ltK OF. 



nil 



upper story is also distinctly indicated. From these, and from the 

 PerscpoliUn column*, Mr. Fergusson conjectures that the wooden 

 column* of the palace* of Nineveh, were short find thick, with carved 

 rfufu. and large capital*. A favourite form of the capital appears from 

 the Assyrian relievi and the existing Persepolitan examples to have 

 ^^i**A of two bulls set back to back. The columns are often 

 figured a* raiting on winged bulls and lions placed back to back. The 

 gallery was crowned by a curved cornice, which appears to have been 

 richly adorned with conventional decoration.-*, which are certainly tin- 

 originals uf the well-known Greek guilloche and honeysuckle ornaments. 

 Surmounting th cornice was a stepped battlemented parapet of a 

 pattern peculiar to Assyrian architecture. 



The roof was of wood and flat, its framework being formed, by 

 massive beams which were borne by the columns. Several of these 

 great beams of cedar and other woods have been found at Ninrvt-h, 

 some nearly perfect, but others reduced to charcoal, and crumbling to 

 powder when exposed to the air. The exterior of the roof was probably 

 composed, as is still usual, of five or six feet of earth, a plan adapted 

 to keep out alike heat and wet. 



Internally the great halls, courts, passages, and principal apartments, 

 were, like the exterior, faced with slabs of alabaster, on which were 

 carved the battles and sieges of the great king, the capture of cities 

 and the presentation of captives and hostages ; hunting scenes ; various 

 divinities, the sacred tree, and other mythological and symbolical 

 subject*, Ac. In some of the secondary buildings, or less important 

 chambers, the walls were covered with stucco, and painted either with 

 figures similar to those of the relievi or with conventional ornament. 

 The pavement was formed of elaborately ornamented alabaster slabs or 

 square tiles or bricks ; both slabs and bricks bearing on their bocks the 

 name of the sovereign who erected the building. The ceilings were, as 

 we know from the Scriptures, and as is proved by the remains, " ceiled 

 with cedar and painted with vermilion," and probably adorned with 

 gilding and inlaid with ivory. Traces of polychrome decoration are 

 found everywhere. Both the exterior and interior walls, there can be 

 little doubt, were painted with the most brilliant colours. Gold was 

 profusely employed, and the images on the walls were " pourtrayed 

 with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed 

 attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner 

 of the Babylonians." (Ezek. xxiii. 14, 15.) 



The buildings hitherto explored were, as has been said, palace-temples ; 

 but they also, as Mr. Layard observes, " appear to have been at the 

 same time public monuments, in which were preserved the records or 

 archives of the nation, carved on stone. In them were represented in 

 sculpture the exploits of the kings, and the forms of the divinities ; 

 whilst the history of the people, and invocations to their gods, were 

 inscribed in written characters on the walls." These inscriptions, in 

 cuneiform characters, are carried over the surface of the larger relievi, 

 without any regard to the effect of the sculptured design ; and since 

 the learned have succeeded in deciphering the characters they have 

 furnished valuable information respecting the history of the people, as 

 well as the construction of these monuments. [CUNEIFORM.] 



Buildings such as those we have )>een describing, however splendid 

 and imposing in appearance, were ill-calculated to withstand violence 

 and subsequent neglect. Whilst the still older temples of Egypt are, 

 in their great features, as strong and impressive as ever, the preserva- 

 tion of any portion of those of Nineveh is due to their being buried 

 beneath the soil. But the very constructive defect which hiii'Vr.d 

 their permanent maintenance may have contributed to the preservation 

 of 10 much of them as remains. The columns and superstructure 

 being of cedar would be an easy prey to the flames, but then the thick 

 roof of earth " would alone suffice to bury the building up to the 

 height of the sculptures. The gradual crumbling of the thick wall* 

 consequent on their unprotected exposure to the atmosphere, would 

 add three or four feet to this ; so that it is hardly too much to suppose 

 that green grass might have been growing over the buried palaces of 

 Nineveh before two or three years bad elapsed from the time of their 

 destruction and desertion. When once this had taken place, the 

 mounds were far too tempting position* not to be speedily occupied by 

 the village* of the native* ; and a few centuries of mud-hut building 

 would complete the process of entombment so completely as to protect 

 the hidden remains perfectly for the many centuries during which they 

 have lain buried, and to enable us now to restore their form almost as 

 certainly a* we can those of the temple* of Greece or Rome, or any of 

 the great nations of antiquity." (Fergusaon, 'Handbook of Arch.,' 

 i. 178.) 



In the work named below, Mr. Fergusson has, with scrupulous care 

 and rare ingenuity, endeavoured to exhibit such a restoration. He 

 ha* also, as our readers well know, given a more tangible shape to his 

 (peculations in the actual restorations, both in form and colour, of the 

 Assyrian Court at the Crystal Palace, Sy den ham. In the main, these 

 restorations have met the sanction of Mr. Lnyard and other authorities 

 who, like him. have made the antiquities of Assyria a special study. 

 Without, therefore, pretending to say that all Mr. Fergusson's views 

 are borne out by our present knowledge of Assyrian remains, and 

 without wishing to be understood as adopting his polychrome theory, 

 we point the reader to these actual restorations, with Mr. Layard'a con- 

 venient little ' Guide ' descriptive of them.as well a* to Mr. Fergunon* 

 larger treatise, a* affording the readiest and lurest means of acquiring 



a definite conception of the leading characteristics of Assyrian palatial 

 architecture. It may, however, be convenient to add a chronological 

 lilt of the palace* discovered at or about Nineveh, a 

 Layard's names of the founders and date of foundut 



The oltlext is the North- West Palace, Nimroud, built about 900 B.C., 

 by a king who i* believed to be identical with the Sardanapolus of the 

 Greeks. This, though not one of the largest, is one of the most 

 beautiful of the palace-temples. The great hall is 152 feet Ion- 

 wide ; at the upper end u the place of the throne, at 

 vestibule overlooking the river. The facade was about 330 i 

 extent. Like the other larger temples, the entire wall-surface, both 

 inside and out, was faced with sculptured slabs, the beat of which arc 

 now in the British Museum. 



The Centre Palace, Niuirmid, was built by a son of Sardanapalus, 

 whose name has been read Sholmann-bar, and who was contemporary 

 with Jehu, king of Israel, who, according to the inscri] 

 palace, was tributary to the Assyrian king. Its date, tl 

 somewhere about 885 B.C. From finding slabs partly removed, and 

 other appearances, Layard was led to conclude that this building had 

 been despoiled to provide materials for building the South-West 

 Palace, in which he found Blabs identical in style and execution with 

 those placed ready for removal in t 



At Kalah-Shergat, on the right bank of the Tigris, and perhajw the 

 site of the Calah of the Scriptures, ore the remains of a pal ice built by 

 the founder of the Centre Palace. The mound is of unusual extent ; 

 but the palace contains, so far as is known, no sculptured slabs. A 

 seated basaltic figure, now in the British Museum, was however found 

 there. 



The Upper Chambers, Nimroud, is a small palace, built about 

 800 B.C. by a successor of Shalmann-bar, named Shamasphal. 



The Palace at Khorsabad was one of the most remarkable of these 

 palace-temples. It stood on a square mound, the sides of which 

 650 feet long, and the approach was by a lower mound at least 1300 

 feet long and 300 feet wide. The great rooms were 110 feet long by 

 33 wide. The design is uniform throughout, and the sculpture of the 

 best class of Assyrian art. It is from this palace that the sculpture in 

 the Louvre is chiefly derived. The palace appears to have been wholly 

 built by Sargon, about 720 B.C. The arch, both as a construct: 

 decorative feature, is shown to have been well understood by the 

 Assyrians at this time. 



The great Palace at Kouyuujik was built by Sennacherib, 

 Sargon, about 700 B c. This was the largest and most m 

 the palaces of Nineveh. It s-tood on an artificial mound 7800 i 

 circumference; the palace proper, which contained tin re ^ivat inner 

 courts and above 60 apartments, occupying a square, the sides of v. 1 . 1, 

 were 600 feet long. In extent it was only surpassed among the build- 

 ings of antiquity by the great temple of Thebee, and the entire w.ill- 

 space was covered with sculpture. The chief of the slabs are now in 

 the liritisli -Museum. 



The South-West Palace, Nimroud, was built by Esarhaildou, tho 

 son of Sennacherib, who seems to have despoiled the previously- 

 existing palaces, and especially the North- West Palace, for its deem 

 The only part which appears to have been saved from entire desti 

 is the great hall, which is 1G5 feet long by 62 feet wide the largest 

 hitherto met with. 



Another palace, supposed to have been built by the same king, wan 

 discovered in the mound known as the Tomb of Jonah. 



A second great palace, discovered near that of Sennacherib, at 

 Kouyunjik, appears to have been built about 050 B c., by a son of 

 Esarhaddon, named Asshur-baui-pal. It is characterised by greater 

 minuteness and finish in the sculptured slabs and architectural details, 

 but in other respects resembles the other large palaces. The sculpture 

 is in the British Museum. 



The South East Palace, Nimroud, is small, and comparatively un- 

 adorned, and is only interesting as having been built by a grandson of 

 Esarhaddon, and probably the lost sovereign of the dynasty. 



Besides these palace-ten) [ >lcs no great buildings, properly so called. 

 have, as we have said, been discovered. But in the great conical mound 

 .it Nimroud were found the remains of a huge square t 

 of sun-dried bricks, which up to the height of about 20 feet had been 

 faced with well-laid solid masonry. It appears to have risen in 

 or four stages or stories to the height of perhaps 200 feet ; at the 

 present time about 120 feet are still standing. In the centre > 

 structure was found a gallery, about 100 feet long, 6 wide, and 1 ; 

 it was quite empty, and afforded no clue to the original jmrpo.se of the 

 building. Mr. Layard is inclined to believe it a place of royal sepulture, 

 and that it was the tomb of Sardanapalus, so often referred to by ancient 

 writers : Mr. Fergusson thinks that it was a temple. An 

 strictly pyramidal seven-storied building wan found by M. Place : it 

 appears to have been a temple, resembling that at Babylon known as 

 the Bin Nimroud. An object of great interest found in this mound 

 was a large inscribed and sculptured monolithic obelisk of black marble, 

 now in the British Museum. [OBELISK.] 



The city wall, which, according to Diodorua Siculus (b. ii., c. 1) was 

 100 feet high, and so wide that three chariots might Vc driven ;. 

 upon it, and which was d' U-ndc 1 l>y 1500 towers, each 200 feet high. 

 has not been traced : nothing now remaining of it, says Mr. Lay. mi, 

 " but the long lines of mounds enclosing the ruins of Nimroud . 



