: George Smith
: Pekka Mansikka
: Assyrian discoveries
: Pekka Mansikka
: 9789526963914
: 1
: CHF 4.90
:
: Geschichte
: English
: 379
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
I November 1873 English Assyriologist George Smith again left England for Nineveh for a second expedition, this time at the expense of the Museum, and continued his excavations at the tell of Kouyunjik (Nineveh). An account of his work is given in Assyrian Discoveries book, published early in 1875. The rest of the year was spent in fixingtogether and translating the fragments relating to the creation, the results of which were published later in The Chaldaean Account of Genesis (1880, co-written with Archibald Sayce)

George Smith, born 26th March 1840, dead 19th August 1876, was a pioneering English Assyriologist. Smith's earliest successes were the discoveries of two unique inscriptions early in 1867. The first, a total eclipse of the sun in the month of Sivan inscribed on tablet K51, he linked to the speculator eclipse that occured on 15 June 763 BC. This discovery is the cornerstone of ancient Near Eastern chronology. The other was the date of an invasion of Babylonia by the Elamites in 2280 BC.

 

 

 

3. From London to Mosul


Paris – Marseilles – Mediterranean – Palermo – Etna – Syra – Smyrna – Alexandretta – Beilan, Hotels – Pass of Beilan – Afrin – Robber – Aleppo – Turkish holiday – Euphrates – Teharmelek – Orfa – American missions – Christians in Turkey – Varremshaher – River Khabour – Nisibis

The offer of the proprietors of the ”Daily Telegraph” being accepted by the trustees of the British Museum, I received leave of absence for six months and directions to proceed to East and open excavations for the recovery of further cuneiforn inscriptions. It would have been better to have waited until the next autumn before starting, but I desired that there should be no disappointment to the proprietors of the ”Daily Telegraph,” who had generously offered to pay the expenses, and who naturally wished some letters in return while the subject was fresh in the public mind, so I resolved to start at once, and after receiving much advice and assistance from my friend Mr. Edwin Arnold, himself an old Eastern traveller, I got off from London on the evening of the 20th of January, 1873, and crossed the Channel during the night. At the weather was stormy, I paid the usual tribute to Neptune; but reached the French coast in good condition for breakfast. On my way I fell in with an active partizan of the fallen empire, going back to France to try to work a change in political affairs there. This gentleman lightened my journey and amused me very much by his endeavours to whitewash the late French government, and to persuade me to read some recent passages in history through his spectacles.

In rested the next night in Paris, and on the morning of the 22nd went to view the Assyrian collection at the Louvre, some notice of which I sent to the ”Telegraph.” It is impossible in a short notice to give a correct description of this admirable collection, which, altough not of great extent, contains several valuable antiquities, the larger part of which were discovered by M. Botta at Khorsabad, and principally belong to reign of Sargon, the monarch mentioned by Isaiah.

Among the remarkable in the Louvre there is a bronze statuette of the time of Kudur-mabuk, an early Elamite king, and a series of metal tablets inscribed with the records of Sargon, which were buried in the foundations of his city in the mound of Khorsabad. After a hasty glance at these and numerous other treasures, I departed in the evening for Marseilles, where I arrived on the afternoon of the 23rd, and midday on the 24th of January I left Marseilles for the East.

The whole of this part of my journey was new to me, and consequently had a double interest; but it has been passed over by many travelles and often described before, so I can dismiss it with a short notice. I took passage on one of the steamers of the Messageries Maritimes company, named the ”Said.”

Passing out of the harbour of Marseilles, I got a good view of the fortifications built for the defence of this port, and looking from and unprofessional point of view, it seemed to me that if they ever came into use some of the fine houses near the sea would be in very exposed positions; but it is always difficult to accommodate fortifications to a large and flourishing city.

There is a desolate, weather-worn appearance about the south coast of France, a