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

130 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
Rassam's Excavations, 1852-54. In the fall of 1 852 operations
were commenced under his superintendence, and continued
till the beginning of April, 1 854. Following Layard's
example, he placed his workmen at as many different sites
as possible, anxious also to prevent his French rival from
encroaching any further upon what he regarded as the British
sphere of influence. But more than a year elapsed
without any of those startling discoveries to which the
English nation had got accustomed through Layard's phenomenal
success. At Qal'at Shirgat, where he excavated
twice in the course of 1853, he obtained two terra-cotta
prisms, inscribed with the annals of Tiglath-Pileser I.
They were only duplicates of others unearthed by his prede-
l
but, unlike those, they were com-
cessor two years before ;
plete and in a fine state of preservation, found buried in
solid masonry, about thirty feet apart, at
two of the corners
of an almost perfect square, which originally formed part of
the large temple of the city of Ashur.
Soon afterwards their
long text of 811 lines played a certain role in the history
of Assyriology, being selected by the council of the Royal
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for a public
test as to the correctness of the deciphering of the Assyrian
cuneiform writing. 2
At the southeast corner of Nimrud, Rassam discovered
Ezida, the temple of Nebo, and six large statues of the
god, two of which had been set up by a governor of Calah
" for the life of Adadnirari [HI.], king of Assyria, his lord,
and for the life of Sammuramat [generally but wrongly
1
Comp. p. 126. The real facts concerning the discovery of these important
prisms as set forth above are generally misrepresented, their discovery
being ascribed either to Layard or Rassam.
2
The inscription was sent to four prominent Assyrian scholars, Rawlinson,
Hincks, Oppert, and Talbot, at the latter' s suggestion, for independent
translations, which in all essential points agreed, and were published in the
journal of that society, vol. xviii., pp. 150-219, London, 1857.