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

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200 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
that all the antiquities recovered became the exclusive property
of the Imperial Museum in Constantinople.
Before Rassam left England in 1877, his duties had been
clearly defined by the trustees of the great London Museum.
In continuing the work of his lamented predecessor,
he was ordered to concentrate his activity upon the mounds
of Nineveh, and to try to secure as many fragments as possible
from the library of Ashurbanapal. But such a task
was very little to the liking of Rassam, whose personal ambition
was directed to sensational finds rather than to a careful
search for broken clay tablets which he could not read,
and the importance of which he was not educated enough to
realize. We cannot do better than to quote his own words
"Although that was the first object of my mission, I was,
nevertheless, more eager to discover some new ancient sites
than to confine my whole energy on such a tame undertaking.
. . . My aim was to discover unknown edifices, and to
bring to light some important Assyrian monument." 1
His
ambition was soon to be gratified.
A year before he was commissioned to renew the British
explorations in Assyria, a friend of his, employed as dragoman
in the French consulate at Mosul, had sent him two
pieces of ancient bronze adorned with figures and cuneiform
signs, in which Savce recognized the name ot Shalmaneser.
Upon the latter's advice, Rassam endeavored to determine,
immediately after his return to the banks of the Tigris,
where these relics had been found.
It did not take him long
to learn that the two pieces presented to him were part of a
large bronze plate accidentally unearthed by a peasant in the
mound of Balawat(d), about fifteen miles to the east of Mosul.
On examining this ruin he observed that the whole site
had been largely used as a burial ground by the native population
of that district, and was therefore excluded from the
1
Comp. Rassam, " Asshur and the Land of Nimrod," New York, 1897,
p. 200.