158 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Mav, 



continuity of the timbers, and render intermediate supports abso- 

 lutely necessary. It niny be asked, why assume tliat the Assyrians 

 Here ifrnorant of framed trusses, by w'hieli the widest spans iniffht 

 be^ ronfed over without the assistance of intermediate supports? 

 We cannot jiruve t)ie non-existence of trusses, hut we certainly 

 have nil evidence that such artificial contrivances are of this re- 

 mote date. We see no indication whatever of pitched roofs in 

 any of the sculptures before us, nor, 1 believe, at all in Egyptian 

 architecture. Even in the Lvcian examples we do not find', until 

 we come down to the Greek jieriod of art, any exanijile of a pedi- 

 ment, which is but the gable end of a intclled roof. These As- 

 svrian palaces, then had, 1 jiresume, flat terraced roofs, as we know 

 the ]'<yptian buildinj;s had: it is the present fashion of the east, 

 and tliat it has ever been so there is abundant proof in the Scrip- 

 tures. It was a law of the Jews tliat no roof should be built with- 

 out a parapet, so that those walkin;,' thereon might be rendered 

 safe. In the sculpture before us are various representations of 

 small domestic huildiiiirs; they have no sloping roofs, but are 

 rounded at top as if formed of' slight timbers bent round, which 

 were iirobably wattled over and covered with mud like the wig- 

 H-ams of the present day. Tlie pa\ilion, also, to wliich I have 

 already adverted, appears to have had its covering stretched over 

 similarly bent timbers. It does not seem improbable that the 

 curved and jiointed roofs of the Lvcian tombs own a similar type, 

 and arc a marble version of a roof of bent timbers. 



Dr. Layard discovered no indications of windows in any of his 

 excavations; but that windows were used in Assyrian architecture 

 is proved by the representation of them occurring in many of the 

 slabs: nor can we imagine any other mode of gaining daylight in 

 the lower rooms when buildings were of several stories iii height, 

 which, liy tliese kis i-cliefs, appears to have been the case. These 

 windows are square-headed, cenerally, and have the peculiarity 

 ot a double or rebated external reveal, by which means, like the 

 splay m Gothic architecture, additional light was gained, tlie 

 actual apertures being narrow. This square sinking in the jambs 

 of a window are, I believe, without a parallel in Egyptian archi- 

 tecture, and is not seen in purely Greek buildings; biit it is singu- 

 lar that this is a feature pervadi'ng the very ancient tombs of Asia 

 Minor, recently made known to us; many instances of it occur in 

 tlie Xanthian marbles at the British Aluseuni. V\'hatever may 

 be the date of the marbles from Xanthus, tliey certainly appear t'o 

 be a very remarkable link between Greek art 'and some'other very 

 different, jire-existing style. 



The occurrence of circular-headed openings in the fortified 

 buildings of Assyria, as plainly represented on these bax rdirfi^ 

 dissipates at once all ideas formerly entertained of the compara- 

 tively recent disco\ery of the principle of construction. Dr. Lay- 

 ard mentions a brick vaulted chamber which he brought to light 

 among the ruins of Nimrood, and other similar discoveries are re- 

 ported to have been still more recently made by him. It seems a 

 reasonalile conjecture that the Arch may have been first used in 

 an alluvial country like that of Assyria, where abundance of bricks 

 were made, and wliere the difficulty of transporting from remote 

 disj:ances large blocks of stone, lit to form a straight lintel over a 

 wide bearing, would render the substitution of an arch turned 

 with bricks, or small stones, peculiarly convenient. 



>Ve may notice that tubular drain tiles were used in i-emoving 

 the rain-water that fell through the openings in the roofs, on to 

 the pavements of the several apartments. That so obvious and 

 simple a contrivance should have been resorted to by a peojile pos- 

 sessing great dexterity in the f.abrication of fictile ware, and living 

 in a district wliere the common soil of the country furnislied tlie 

 materials to their hand, seems so natural as scarcely to justify 

 more than a passing remark; yet, is it not curious, that now, in 

 the nineteenth century, and in England, a tubular draining tile is 

 one of tlie most recent of novelties.'' 



A thin stratum of bitumen is mentioned by Dr. Layard as oc- 

 curring under all the floors, and passing, as 'he observed, under 

 these sculptured slabs of alabaster with which the inner face of the 

 walls was lined. He was unable to account for this, but the 

 architect will at once perceive tliat this was a precaution taken to 

 prevent the dani]) from arising from the earth under tlie pavement, 

 and destroying the paintings, and endangering eventually the 

 alabaster itself. 



Reverting again to the representations of Assyrian Castles on 

 the slabs before us, I must not omit to call your iittention to the 

 crenellated parapets having battlements generally pointed or 

 notched, as if to facilitate the use of tlie bow and 'arrow. Here 

 also we find an analagous case in the friezes of the Lvcian temple, 

 discovered by Sir Charles Fellowes, and now deposited in our 



Museum. Castles are there represented with embattled parapets 

 \ery similar to these in Assyria, and not unlike examples still sub- 

 sisting in the East. 



It has long been a subject of speculation what style of architecture 

 characterised the first temple of Jerusalem. I think that it may 

 be not unreasonably presumed, that the magnificent ruins now 

 brought to light, after an interment of two or three thousand years, 

 attbrd us a far better clue than any we have ever yet possessed ; a 

 mudi more intimate connexion existed, both geograpliically and 

 jiolitically, between the inhabitants of Palestine and the people of 

 Assyria and Babylonia, than with the Egyptians, from whom they 

 were se|>arated by the Arabian desert. Perhaps, too, the marbles 

 under discussion will be admitted as evidence of an earlier civilisa- 

 tion of art among the former peojile, and therefore of their greater 

 influence in matters of taste. Me have indeed the evidence of the 

 Surintures that Solomon sought his artists — his " cunning work- 

 men' — in the region north of Judea; Hiram of Tyre was his worker 

 in metals, and his best carpenters were Sidonians. 



^^'ith how deep an interest, then, these considerations seem to 

 invest the sculptures from Nimrood ! When, to use the eloquent 

 words of Dr. Layard, we reflect that " Before these wonderful 

 forms, Ezekiel, Jonah, and others of the Prophets stood, and 

 Senacherib bowed ; that even the Patriarch Abraham himself may 

 possibly have looked upon them :" that works of such extraordinary 

 interest and value sliould, after the lapse of thousands of years, 

 have found their place in our National Repository, is indeed a 

 matter of just pride and congratulation, and I cannot forbear to 

 express a confident hope that no e.xertion may be wanting on the 

 part of our rulers, and of the nation generally, to second the in- 

 defatigable zeal of our countryman in securing for us a still farther 

 accession to this most important collection. 



In conclusion, Mr. Sniirke referred to the recent accounts from 

 Nineveh, as being provokiugly vague and meagre. There had 

 been found, it would appear, a most miscellaneous collection of 

 rich armour, antique vessels, costly apparel, and other treasures, 

 put together in a manner perfectly perplexing. An ingenious 

 pupil of his, Mr. Cates, had, however, drawn his attention to a 

 passage in Diodorus Siculus, which would perhaps help to explain 

 so otherwise unaccountable a circumstance. Sardanapalus, as they 

 all knew, when his danger was imminent, and the Median enemy 

 in possesion of his city, owing to a sudden irruption of the river 

 breaking down twenty stadia of the walls, collected together all 

 his vestments and treasures, and formed of them a grand funereal 

 jiile. On the top he placed his concubines, his eunuchs, and him- 

 self; and, ajiplying the torch, the whole were burnt together. Dio- 

 dorus relates that one of the eunuchs made his escape, and gave 

 information to Belesys, a Babylonian priest, that under the ruins 

 of the king's palace might be found enormous treasures. The 

 priest went straight to Arbaces, who, in the midst of his triumph, 

 was distributing rewards to his satraps, and reminding the monarch 

 that he had predicted the fall of Nineveh, said that in the midst 

 of the battle he had vowed a vow to Belus, that if the Babylonians 

 were victorious, he would convey the ruins of the royal palace to 

 Babylon, and erect there a temple to that god, which should at 

 once serve as a landmark to those who navigated the river that 

 ran by that great city, and be a monument of the destruction of 

 Nineveh. The Median king, who was described by Diodorus as 

 possessing a noble and generous disposition, granted to Belesys all 

 the ruins of the royal palace for this puriiose. The priest then, 

 with the help of the eunuch, removed a greater part of the trea- 

 sure; but the fraud was discovered, and he was condemned to 

 death. The operations of the priest, so far as the treasures were 

 concerned, were surreptitious, and of course the investigation of 

 the ruins could not have been so complete as if it had been con- 

 ducted openly and deliberately, and that would seem to account 

 for the incongruous heap of valuables discovered by Dr. Layard. 

 Thus, if the eunuch had not had so natural a distaste to be one of 

 the party in the royal o»;u-rf«-/c. Dr. Layard might have been by 

 this time in possession of all the treasuies of Sardanapalus. 



Remarks made at the Meeting after tlie Keadimj of the foregoing Paper. 



Mr. Bellamy (the Ch.iirman.) — Our best ticaiiks are due to Mr. Smirke 

 for his interesting pa|)er on this highly interestin« subject. I may mention, 

 as an addition to the paper, that I have noliced in these sculptures the 

 apparent existence of folding doors. I cannot help expressing a wish that 

 these excellent sculptures may be speedily reraoied from the cellar which 

 they at present occupy, to a better position, where they may be seen to 

 gr. aler advantage. 



Mr. Do.vALDSON. — There cannot be a doubt but that Dr. Layard has at 

 Niinrnod brought to light a class of architecture or style of art, which pre- 

 vailed not only on the banks of the Tigris, but also obtained through the 



