Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING Id CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 67
bringing back the startling news that the whole surface
was literally covered with large towers, extensive mounds,
and numerous smaller ruins, with frequent
traces of ancient
canals, fragments of bricks, statuary, and many other objects
of a high antiquity. Fully convinced of the character and
age of these remains of a former civilization, Sir Henry
Rawlinson at once conceived the idea of having the whole
of Babylonia surveyed after the manner so admirably followed
by Jones and Hyslop in Assyria. Prior to his return
to England (1855), he requested the two last-named
experienced men, assisted by T. Kerr Lynch, to make
an accurate survey also of the ruins of Babylon and its
environments, an order which they executed in 1854-55.
Finally, after
the lapse of some time, through Rawlinson's
efforts a special committee was appointed by the British
government of India for the purpose of carrying out his
more comprehensive plan. It consisted of Commander
William Beaumont Selby and Lieutenants Collingwood and
Bewsher. But notwithstanding the fact that this commission
spent the years 1861-65 m Babylonia executing the
orders received, and that the most difficult part of the work,
the surveying of the swampy district from Musavvib to
Shenafiye, on the west side of the Euphrates, was finished
in the very first year (1861), yet at the end of the period
mentioned only about the fourth part of the entire area
was on paper.
When contrasted with the large amount of work done
by Jones within such a short time and often under trying
circumstances, one cannot but realize that the old fierv enthusiasm,
which inspired the first Babylonian and Assyrian
explorers willingly to risk everything, in order to break unknown
ground and recover an ancient country, was strongly
on the wane. And the American Expedition of the University
of Pennsylvania had not yet demonstrated that, notwithstanding
the excessive heat and the often almost
incredible