Babylonian Story of the Deluge | Page 3

Baghdâd, undertook to direct any further excavations that might be
possible to carry out later on. During the summer the Trustees received
a further grant from Parliament for excavations in Assyria, and they
dispatched Rassam to finish the exploration of Kuyûnjik, knowing that
the lease of the mound of Kuyûnjik for excavation purposes which he
had obtained from its owner had several years to run. When Rassam
arrived at Môsul in 1853, and was collecting his men for work, he
discovered that Rawlinson, who knew nothing about the lease of the
mound which Rassam held, had given the French Consul, M. Place,
permission to excavate the northern half of the mound, i.e., that part of
it which he was most anxious to excavate for the British Museum. He
protested, but in vain, and, finding that M. Place intended to hold
Rawlinson to his word, devoted himself to clearing out part of the
South West Palace which Layard had attacked in 1852. Meanwhile M.
Place was busily occupied with the French excavations at Khorsabad, a
mound which contained the ruins of the great palace of Sargon II, and
had no time to open up excavations at Kuyûnjik. In this way a year
passed, and as M. Place made no sign that he was going to excavate at

Kuyûnjik and Rassam's time for returning to England was drawing near,
the owner of the mound, who was anxious to get the excavations
finished so that he might again graze his flocks on the mound, urged
Rassam to get to work in spite of Rawlinson's agreement with M. Place.
He and Rassam made arrangements to excavate the northern part of the
mound clandestinely and by night, and on 20th December, 1853, the
work began. On the first night nothing of importance was found; on the
second night the men uncovered a portion of a large bas-relief; and on
the third night a huge mass of earth collapsed revealing a very fine
bas-relief, sculptured with a scene representing Ashur-bani-pal standing
in his chariot. The news of the discovery was quickly carried to all
parts of the neighbourhood, and as it was impossible to keep the
diggings secret any longer, the work was continued openly and by day.
The last-mentioned bas-relief was one of the series that lined the
chamber, which was 50 feet long and 15 feet wide, and illustrated a
royal lion hunt. [2] This series, that is to say, all of it that the fire which
destroyed the palace had spared, is now in the British Museum (see the
Gallery of the Assyrian Saloon).
Whilst the workmen were clearing out the Chamber of the Lion Hunt
they came across several heaps of inscribed baked clay tablets of "all
shapes and sizes," which resembled in general appearance the tablets
that Layard had found in the South West Palace the year before. There
were no remains with them, or near them, that suggested they had been
arranged systematically and stored in the Chamber of the Lion Hunt,
and it seems as if they had been brought there from another place and
thrown down hastily, for nearly all of them were broken into small
pieces. As some of them bore traces of having been exposed to great
heat they must have been in that chamber during the burning of the
palace. When the tablets were brought to England and were examined
by Rawlinson, it was found from the information supplied by the
colophons that they formed a part of the great Private Library of
Ashur-bani-pal, which that king kept in his palace. The tablets found by
Layard in 1852 and by Rassam in 1853 form the unique and
magnificent collection of cuneiform tablets in the British Museum,
which is now commonly known as the "Kuyûnjik Collection." The
approximate number of the inscribed baked clay tablets and fragments
that have come from Kuyûnjik and are now in the British Museum is

25,073. It is impossible to over-estimate their importance and value
from religious, historical and literary points of view; besides this, they
have supplied the material for the decipherment of cuneiform
inscriptions in the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian languages, and
form the foundation of the science of Assyriology which has been built
up with such conspicuous success during the last 70 years.
Ashur-bani-pal, Book-Collector and Patron of Learning.
Ashur-bani-pal (the Asnapper of Ezra iv, 10) succeeded his father
Esarhaddon B.C. 668, and at a comparatively early period of his reign
he seems to have devoted himself to the study of the history of his
country, and to the making of a great Private Library. The tablets that
have come down to us prove not only that he was as great a benefactor
of the Library of the Temple of Nebo as any of his predecessors, but
that he was