( In the middle of the nineteenth century, British archeo...)
In the middle of the nineteenth century, British archeologist Austen Henry Layard uncovered parts of several ancient Assyrian cities buried beneath the earth, including the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Nineveh. Nineveh was one of the greatest cities of its time and was an important religious center around 3000 BC. Commerce and religion thrived in the city, which was decorated with ornate stone carvings and reliefs and boasted well-defended walls and an aqueduct. However, the city was sacked in 612 BC, and its citizens were either deported or murdered. From that time forward, the city remained unoccupied, until Layard's excavation in the mid-1800s brought its treasures back into the world. Layard, in this stunningly honest account, describes his journeys around Asia Minor, traveling by caravans to remote places with unfamiliar cultures, religious practices, and customs. He recounts discovering the vast city in the land of Nimrod, and excavating Bas-reliefs, winged lions, tombs, and large stone wall carvings, all of which were a part of the British Museum's excavation and subsequent transfer to London. Inserted throughout descriptions of Layard's encounters with tribes and fascinating historical discoveries is a look at the introduction of Christianity to the region and the culture of the people who once roamed the brick-laid streets of one of the most famous cities in religious and secular history. This new edition of Layard's classic narrative is sure to make a stunning gift for any history or archeology buff.
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Layard was born in Paris on March 5, 1817. His father, Henry P. J. Layard, of the Ceylon Civil Service, was the son of Charles Peter Layard, dean of Bristol, and grandson of Daniel Peter Layard, the physician.
Through his mother, a daughter of Nathaniel Austen, banker, of Ramsgate, he inherited Spanish blood.
This strain of cosmopolitanism must have been greatly strengthened by the circumstances of layard's education.
Much of his boyhood was spent in Italy, where he received part of his schooling, and acquired a taste for the fine arts and a love of travel; but he was at school also in England, France and Switzerland.
After spending nearly six years in the office of his uncle, Benjamin Austen, a solicitor, Layard was tempted to leave England for Ceylon by the prospect of obtaining an appointment in the civil service, and he started in 1839 with the intention of making an overland journey across Asia. After wandering for many months, chiefly in Persia, and having abandoned his intention of proceeding to Ceylon, he returned in 1842 to Constantinople, where he made the acquaintance of Sir Stratford Canning, the British ambassador, who employed him in various unofficial diplomatic missions in European Turkey. In 1845, encouraged and assisted by Canning, Layard left Constantinople to make those explorations among the ruins of Assyria with which his name is chiefly associated. This expedition was in fulfilment of a design which he had formed, when, during his former travels in the East, his curiosity had been greatly excited by the ruins of Nimrud on the Tigris, and by the great mound of Kuyunjik, near Mosul, already partly excavated by Botta. Layard remained in the neighbourhood of Mosul, carrying on excavations at Kuyunjik and Nimrud, and investigating the condition of various tribes, until 1847; and, returning to England in 1848, published Nineveh and its Remains: •with an A ccount of a Visit to the Chaldaean Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or Devil-worshippers; and an Inquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians (2 vols. , 1848 - 1849). To illustrate the antiquities described in this work he published a large folio volume of Illustrations of the Monuments of Nineveh (1849). After spending a few months in England, and receiving the degree of D. C. L. from the university of Oxford, Layard returned to Constantinople as attache to the British embassy, and, in August 1849, started on a second expedition, in the course of which he extended his investigations to the ruins of Babylon and the mounds of southern Mesopotamia. Elected as a Liberal member for Aylesbury in 1852, he was for a few weeks under-secretary for foreign affairs, but afterwards freely criticized the government, especially in connexion with army administration. He was present in the Crimea during the war, and was a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the conduct of the expedition. In 1855 he refused from Lord Palmerston an office not connected with foreign affairs, was elected lord rector of Aberdeen university, and on 15th June moved a resolution in the House of Commons (defeated by a large majority) declaring that in public appointments merit had been sacrificed to private influence and an adherence to routine. After being defeated at Aylesbury in 1857, he visited India to investigate the causes of the Mutiny. He unsuccessfully contested York in 1859, but was elected for Southwark in 1860, and from 1861 to 1866 was under-secretary for foreign affairs in the successive administrations of Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell. In 1866 hewas appointed a trustee of the British Museum, and in 1868 chief commissioner of works in W. E. Gladstone's government and a member of the Privy Council. He retired from parliament in 1869, on being sent as envoy extraordinary to Madrid. In 1877 he was appointed by Lord Beaconsfield ambassador at Constantinople, where he remained until Gladstone's return to power in 1880, when he finally retired from public life.
Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, which was illustrated by another folio volume, called A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh, was published in 1853. During these expeditions, often in circumstances of great difficulty, Layard despatched to England the splendid specimens which now form the greater part of the collection of Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum. Apart from the archaeological value of his work in identifying Kuyunjik as the site of Nineveh, and in providing a great mass of materials for scholars to work upon, these two books of Layard's are among the best- written books of travel in the language. He wrote also an introduction to Miss Ffoulkes's translation of Morelli's Italian Painters (1892 - 1893), and edited that part of Murray's Handbook of Rome (1894) which deals with pictures. In 1887 he published, from notes taken at the time, a record of his first journey to the East, entitled Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana and Babylonia.
( In the middle of the nineteenth century, British archeo...)
The Layards were of Huguenot descent.
Layard also from time to time contributed papers to various learned societies, including the Huguenot Society, of which he was first president.
Layard's political life was somewhat stormy. His manner was brusque, and his advocacy of the causes which he had at heart, though always perfectly sincere, was vehement to the point sometimes of recklessness.
After spending nearly six years in the office of his uncle, Benjamin Austen, a solicitor, Layard was tempted to leave England for Ceylon by the prospect of obtaining an appointment in the civil service, and he started in 1839 with the intention of making an overland journey across Asia.
