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

DURING 19TH CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 79
of the inhabitants followed, after the explorer's promise to
restore the original contour of the mound as soon as the
latter had been fully examined.
Even before this agreement
was entered into with the villagers, Botta had found it necessary
to fill his trenches again after he had copied the inscriptions,
drawn the sculptures, and removed those antiquities
which could be transported, as the only way in which the
large mass of crumbling reliefs could be saved for future
research from their rapid destruction by the air. But it
was not until the beginning of May, 1844, after the excavations
had rested almost completely 1 during the winter, that
Flandin finally brought the necessary firman from Constantinople
allowing the resumption of the excavations. Notwithstanding
the approaching heat, no more time was lost.
Three hundred Christian refugees were gradually engaged
to excavate the unexplored part of the mound, Botta copying
the inscriptions and Flandin preparing the drawings of
the sculptures as soon as they had been exposed. Both
men worked with the greatest harmony, energy, and devotion
during the whole oppressive summer, until, in
October, 1844, after most remarkable success, the excavations
were suspended temporarily.
A large mass of material was packed for shipment by raft
down the Tigris to Basra, whence the Cormorant, a French
man-of-war, in 1846, carried it safely to Havre. Flandin
was the first to leave Khorsabad (November, 1844) and
to return to Paris. His large portfolio of beautiful sketches
and drawings
the originals.
had fairly prepared the way for the arrival of
But when now these extraordinary monuments
themselves had found a worthy place in the large halls of
the Louvre, constituting the first great Assyrian museum of
1
Only interrupted by a short visit to Khorsabad in company with a fewtravellers,
among them Mr. Dittel, sent by the Russian Minister of Public
Instruction to inspect the excavations. In connection with this visit Botta
even made a slight excavation in order to satisfy the curiosity of his guests.