10 Some conjectures on the progress of [Jan. 



of ruins. But at Nimroud, a still stranger revelation was at hand. At a 

 certain level in the mound, many tombs were found (Nineveh, vol. II. 

 ch. XI.) containing the remains of the dead with vases, plates, mirrors, 

 spoons, beads, and ornaments, "identical with similar remains found in 

 the tombs of Egypt.'* Some of these tombs were built of baked bricks 

 carefully joined, but without mortar ; others were formed by large 

 earthen sarcophagi covered with an entire alabaster slab. " Having 

 carefully collected the contents of the tombs," says Mr. Layard, " I 

 removed them, and dug deeper into the mound. I was surprised to 

 find, about five feet beneath them, the remains of a building. Walls 

 of unbaked bricks could still be traced ; but the slabs with which they 

 had been cased, were no longer in their places, being scattered about 

 without order, and lying mostly with their faces on the flooring of 

 baked bricks. Upon them were both sculptures and inscriptions." 

 Here were the tombs over the ruins. The edifice had perished and in 

 the earth and rubbish accumulating above its remains, a people, whose 

 funeral vases, and ornaments were identical in form and material, with 

 those found in the catacombs of Egypt, had buried their dead. " What 

 race then occupied the country after the destruction of the Assyrian 

 palaces? at what period were these tombs made?" asks Mr. Layard. 

 He goes on to show us such differences in the character of the Assyrian 

 bas-reliefs in the lower grave-buried palace, and that occupying the N. 

 W. of the Nimroud mound, that one might think we read here a his- 

 tory of Assyrian power subverted, and of a strange (Egyptianised) 

 race living and dying in and over their kingly halls, who were again 

 subsequently so dispossessed, and eradicated by the re-establishment of 

 Assyrian domination, as only to tell they had been ever there, by the 

 mute and mournful eloquence of their graves ! The course of ascer- 

 tained Egyptian history, supports the silent evidence of these newly- 

 discovered remains ; their extreme antiquity and obscurity as respects 

 all other historical authority, prepares for the reception of the esta- 

 blished chronological computations of Chevalier Bunsen, which carry 

 back the record of the succession of time, as synchronised with the 



west, giving like intimation of a local Egyptian influence, with that shown in the 

 palatial graves of Nimrod on the plain of the Tigris, adds great force to the truth 

 of my exposition of the external impression, left lasting by the old Egyptians 

 beyond their own land. — H. T. 



