jan.— mar. 1857.] Excavations in Assyria 8f Babylonia. 251 



" No. 1. was analysed by Mr. Spiller, and No. 2. by Mr. A. Dick, 

 chemists who have been incessantly engaged at the Museum dur- 

 ing the last two years and a half in the analyses of the iron ores of 

 this country, and whose great experience renders their results wor- 

 thy of entire confidence, Cobalt and nickel were not sought for in 

 either case, but the metallic iron enveloped in both specimens con- 

 tained a minute quantity of cobalt and nickel. Another piece of slag- 

 like matter, which was found on the ground near the tree, and which 

 from its external characters I have no hesitation in pronouncing to 

 be a slag, was examined for cobalt and nickel and gave unequivocal 

 evidence of the former in minute quantity, though not satisfactorily 

 of the latter. 



'* The metal previously mentioned is malleable iron. That 

 which was detached from the slag-like matter, found outside the 

 tree, was filed and polished, and then treated with dilute sulphuric 

 acid. After this treatment, the surface presented small, confused, 

 irregularly-defined crystalline plates, and was identical in appear- 

 ance with the surface of a piece of malleable iron similarly treated 

 after fusion in a crucible." 



Colonel H. C. Rawlinson, 



On the Results of the Excavations in Assyria and Babylonia. 



These excavations, independently of the treasures of art disclos- 

 ed by them, have opened up to us a period of about 2000 years in 

 the world's history, which, as far as the East is concerned, was be- 

 fore almost entirely unknown. The cuneiform inscriptions of 

 Babylonia and Assyria furnish a series of historical documents from 

 the 22nd century B.C. to the age of Antiochus the Great. The 

 speaker divided these documents into three distinct periods of 

 history, the Chaldsean, the Assyrian, and the Babylonian, and he 

 then proceeded briefly to describe each period in succession. Dur- 

 ing the Chaldaean period the seat of empire was to the south, 

 towards the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the sites 

 of the ancient capitals were marked by the ruins of Mugheir, of 

 Warka, of Senkereh, and of Niffer. AtMughier, called in the in- 



