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

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 193
it
may well be doubted whether he would have been so successful
in the South as he was with his clearly defined task
and his limited time in the North. Most curious is his
attempt at rearranging the principal ruins of Babylon in
accordance with his own notions of the topography of the
ancient metropolis. Notwithstanding his superior knowledge
of the cuneiform inscriptions, and though contrary to
all evidence adduced by the early explorers of the nineteenth
century, he revived the old theory of Rennell and
Mignan, believing the lofty mound of Babil to represent
the remains of the temple of Belus. The hanging gardens
were placed on the western side of the Qasr, between the
river Euphrates and the palace of Nebuchadrezzar, and
the fine yellow piers and buttresses of the latter regarded
as part of them ; while 'Omran ibn 'Ali, " which promises
little or nothing to an explorer," only marks " the spot,
where the old city was most thickly inhabited." It was
fortunate for Smith and for science that he had no time to
imitate Layard's example at Babylon and Nippur, the final
grant of the firman calling him away to the mounds of
Assyria.
On the 3d of April he was back in Mosul. Six days
later he started his excavations at Nimrtid, which he continued
for a whole month. There was no longer a chance
of lighting on any new sculptured palaces or temples like
those discovered by Botta and Layard. The " day of small
things," announced long before by Rawlinson as " certain
to follow on the rich yield of the earlier labours," had commenced.
" New inscriptions and small objects of art are all
that I expect to obtain from continual excavations either in
Assyria or Babylonia," he had written to Sir Henry Ellis in
1853, 1 and the proceeds of the later operations fully justified
his prediction. Smith opened trenches at nearly all the
1
Comp. George Rawlinson, "A Memoir of Major-General Sir Henry
Creswicke Rawlinson," London, 1898, pp. 117, seq.