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

DURING Win CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 81
whose advice and cooperation Botta and Flandin were enabled
to publish the results of their combined labors in a
magnificent work of five large volumes. 1
The excavations of the two explorers had penetrated
into the interior of the mound of Khorsabad until all
of walls disappeared.
traces
But a careful study of the plan drawn
by Flandin had enabled them to infer that the great structure
which yielded all these bas-reliefs and inscriptions must
formerly have extended considerably farther.
From certain
indications in the ground it became evident that a part of the
monumental building had been intentionally destroyed in
ancient times, but it was to be expected that another considerable
part was still preserved somewhere in the unexplored
sections of the mound. Stimulated by the hope of finding
the lost trace again, Botta himself opened a number of
trial trenches at various points. But all his exertions having
failed, he came to the conclusion that everything that remained
of the palace at
Khorsabad had been excavated, and
therefore he put a stop to the work on this ruin.
In the year 1851 the French Assembly voted a sum of
money for an expedition to be sent to Babylonia (which we
shall discuss later), and another for the resumption of the
suspended excavations at Khorsabad, to be directed bv
Victor Place, a skilful architect and Botta's successor as
French consular agent at Mosul. Technically well prepared
for his task, and faithfully supported in the trenches by
Botta's intelligent
foreman, Nahushi, who with many other
former workmen had gladly reentered French employment,
Place completed the systematic examination of the great
palace and restored its ground-plan during the years 1851-55.
Under his supervision the excavations exposed all the remaining
buildings and rooms attached to the sculptured halls,
— a space about three times as large as that explored bv his
1
Monument de Ninive d'ecouvert et decrit par M. P. E. Botta, mesure
et dessin'e par M. E. Flandin, 5 volumes with 400 plates, Paris, 1849-50.