ABSTRACT

The Conquest of Assyria tells what must surely be one of the most romantic tales of archaeological endeavour. The great cities and ancient palaces of Mesopotamia had lain buried for over two millenia, and were all but forgotten, half remembered in the Hebrew Bible and Classical texts. This volume records the dramatic finds, the decipherment of the cuneiform system of writing and the rediscovery of a lost civilisation.

part I|142 pages

The First Explorers

chapter 1|11 pages

The Mounds of Nineveh

chapter 2|7 pages

Paolo Emilio Botta

chapter 3|13 pages

The First Palace Appears

chapter 4|6 pages

Austen Henry Layard

chapter 5|5 pages

The Journey into the East

chapter 6|7 pages

Mesopotamia — The First Impression

chapter 7|9 pages

Indiana Jones Among the Bakhtiyaris

chapter 8|9 pages

Mosul and Constantinople

chapter 9|9 pages

Nimrud

chapter 10|9 pages

The Ideal English Soldier

chapter 11|11 pages

The Return of Nimrod

chapter 12|9 pages

But is It Art?

chapter 13|7 pages

Cholera and Small-Mindedness

chapter 14|10 pages

Monuments and Inscriptions

chapter 15|8 pages

Packing Bulls and other Luggage

chapter 16|10 pages

Triumph and Revolution

part II|148 pages

The Excavation of Sennacherib's Palace

chapter 17|12 pages

Home Again

chapter 18|9 pages

Depths of Time

chapter 19|11 pages

Eusebius or Moses?

chapter 20|12 pages

The Mysteries of Cuneiform

chapter 21|7 pages

Back to Constantinople

chapter 22|10 pages

Mosul Revisited

chapter 23|9 pages

An Encounter on Nimrud

chapter 24|13 pages

Rawlinson in Paradise

chapter 25|8 pages

Palaces and Treasures

chapter 26|8 pages

Guests

chapter 27|11 pages

Pastoral

chapter 28|11 pages

Disasters and New Discoveries

chapter 29|9 pages

Summer in the Palace

chapter 30|11 pages

Babylonia

chapter 31|5 pages

Goodbye to Assyria

part III|73 pages

Victor Place and Hormuzd Rassam

chapter 32|13 pages

Rawlinson Gets It Right

chapter 33|11 pages

New Men, New Excavations

chapter 34|16 pages

Jealousy and Ill-Feeling

chapter 35|11 pages

War

chapter 36|6 pages

Shipwreck

chapter 37|14 pages

Fates