[Gutenberg 24654] • Chaldea: From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

I. Mesopotamia.—The Mounds.—The First Searchers

§ 1. Complete destruction of Nineveh.—§§ 2-4. Xenophon and the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand." The Greeks pass the ruins of Calah and Nineveh, and know them not.—§ 5. Alexander's passage through Mesopotamia.—§ 6. The Arab invasion and rule.—§ 7. Turkish rule and mismanagement.—§ 8. Peculiar natural conditions of Mesopotamia.—§ 9. Actual desolate state of the country.—§ 10. The plains studded with Mounds. Their curious aspect.—§ 11. Fragments of works of art amidst the rubbish.—§ 12. Indifference and superstition of the Turks and Arabs.—§ 13. Exclusive absorption of European scholars in Classical Antiquity.—§ 14. Forbidding aspect of the Mounds, compared with other ruins.—§ 15. Rich, the first explorer.—§ 16. Botta's work and want of success.—§ 17. Botta's great discovery.—§ 18. Great sensation created by it.—§ 19. Layard's first expedition.

II. Layard and his Work

§ 1. Layard's arrival at Nimrud. His excitement and dreams.—§ 2. Beginning of difficulties. The Ogre-like Pasha of Mossul.—§ 3. Opposition from the Pasha. His malice and cunning.—§ 4. Discovery of the gigantic head. Fright of the Arabs, who declare it to be Nimrod.—§ 5. Strange ideas of the Arabs about the sculptures.—§ 6. Layard's life in the desert.—§ 7. Terrible heat of summer.—§ 8. Sand-storms and hot hurricanes.—§ 9. Layard's wretched dwelling.—§ 10. Unsuccessful attempts at improvement.—§ 11. In what the task of the explorer consists.—§ 12. Different modes of carrying on the work of excavation.

III. The Ruins

§ 1. Every country's culture and art determined by its geographical conditions.—§ 2. Chaldea's absolute deficiency in wood and stone.—§ 3. Great abundance of mud fit for the fabrication of bricks; hence the peculiar architecture of Mesopotamia. Ancient ruins still used as quarries of bricks for building. Trade of ancient bricks at Hillah.—§ 4. Various cements used.—§ 5. Construction of artificial platforms.—§ 6. Ruins of Ziggurats; peculiar shape, and uses of this sort of buildings.—§ 7. Figures showing the immense amount of labor used on these constructions.—§ 8. Chaldean architecture adopted unchanged by the Assyrians.—§ 9. Stone used for ornament and casing of walls. Water transport in old and modern times.—§ 10. Imposing aspect of the palaces.—§ 11. Restoration of Sennacherib's palace by Fergusson.—§ 12. Pavements of palace halls.—§ 13. Gateways and sculptured slabs along the walls. Friezes in painted tiles.—§ 14. Proportions of palace halls and roofing.—§ 15. Lighting of halls.—§ 16. Causes of the kings' passion for building.—§ 17. Drainage of palaces and platforms.—§ 18. Modes of destruction.—§ 19. The Mounds a protection to the ruins they contain. Refilling the excavations.—§ 20. Absence of ancient tombs in Assyria.—§ 21. Abundance and vastness of cemeteries in Chaldea.—§ 22. Warka (Erech) the great Necropolis. Loftus' description.—§ 23. "Jar-coffins."—§ 24. "Dish-cover" coffins.—§25. Sepulchral vaults.—§ 26. "Slipper-shaped" coffins.—§ 27. Drainage of sepulchral mounds.—§ 28. Decoration of walls in painted clay-cones.—§ 29. De Sarzec's discoveries at Tell-Loh

IV. The Book of the Past.—The library of Nineveh

§ 1. Object of making books.—§ 2. Books not always of paper.—§ 3. Universal craving for an immortal name.—§ 4. Insufficiency of records on various writing materials. Universal longing for knowledge of the remotest past.—§ 5. Monumental records.—§ 6. Ruins of palaces and temples, tombs and caves—the Book of the Past.—§§ 7-8. Discovery by Layard of ...