Review – Ancient Cities Reveal Ancient Civilizations
THE SCIENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGY HAS POINTED OUT THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE PAST AND THE MYSTERIES WHICH THEY CONTAINED. The Pioneer of British Archaeology in the ancient land of Mesopotamia was young Henry Austen Layard. He and a young friend travelled through Albania, Roumelia (Romania), and Bulgaria and on into Constantinople and into Asia Minor back in the year 1839. They were struck with the beauty of the country at that time. But this young Englishman was also looking for ancient ruins. This was his dream, to dig in one of these ancient sites. Finally leaving his partner in this adventure, he travelled on into Mesopotamia to the city of Mosul (meaning Junction). This city was on the bank of the Tigris River.
A little further down along the opposite bank of this Tigris River was the massive ruin’s called Kuyunjik now known as Nineveh and close across the river was the remains of that ancient city called Nimrud. Our author thought that this ruin was also a part of the ancient city Nineveh. Young Henry Austen Layard wrote his history of the findings in this excavations of those cities in his book, “Nineveh and it’s remains.”
When this young Englishman first set eyes on these ancient ruin’s back in the year of 1840 then very little was known beyond the biblical records and occasional references by Classical authors about this ancient civilization which existed in biblical times. The Russians and the English forces were trying to regain their land, thus any work there was dangerous. Our author returned to England hoping his travels would secure for him a job preferably in the Foreign Service. This was not to be since his interest laid in this science of Archaeology which was very popular at that time.
Our young author then returned to the east, to the ruins called Nimrud in 1844, and immediately hired a crew and they began to dig. Almost immediately he discovered a large room and then there buried in debris was 2 Winged Bull’s of a large size. These stood 14 feet high and weighed approximately 20 tons a piece. Knowing a bit of English Identity from the English Museum no doubt helped him to realize he had made a marvellous find, but here in this old land now the Muslim’s were now in control and hard to deal with. Even though he had a permit to dig in these ancient ruins, for the British Museum was quick to back this ‘dig’, still this was in the land today that we know as Iraq, and it was a land fought over through the years. He knew it would be hard to remove these two Winged Bull’s and it would take a long time since you could only work in the fall and winter for the heat was intense in the summer. He had no choice but to cover the Bull’s once more so as to protect them.