Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1851-10-23
MISCELLANY N Y .
Biblical Antiquities.

as= Biblical Antiquities.
The Kings of Assyria.-Col Rawlinson,
the celebrated English antiquary, the greatest
of living archaologists, has, of late, as it is
well known, devoted all his learning and ef-
forts to the task of deciphering the Inscriptions
obtained BY Layard and the French explorers
from among the ruins of NineveI and other As
syrian towns. His success has been consider
able; but he announces, in the last received
number Of the London Athen@um, a triumph
which transcends all previous ones in impor-
tance, being moth ing less than the discovery Of
records of the reign of Sennacherib, and of his
war against Jerusalem and King Hezekiah =
81 have succeeded, says he, Sin determinately
identifying the Assyrian kings of the lower dy-
nasty, whose palaces have been recently exca-
waited in the vicinity of Mosul, and have OBJ
tained from the annals of those kings contem-
porary notices of events which agree in the
most remarkable way with the statements pre-
served in sacred and profane history From
his paper, which is pretty long one, in the
Atheneum, we abbreviate some of the more
interesting particulars.
The king who built the palace of Khorsabad
excavated by the French, he says, is named
Sargina but he also bears, in some of the in
serptions, the epithet of Shalnaneser, by which
title he was better known to the Jews. One
of the tablets, which is much mutilated, records
his going up, in the first year of his reign,
against the Samarina (Samaria) and the coun-
try of Beth Honri, ('Omri was the founder of
Samaria } whence he carried off into captivity
in Assyria no less than 81 ,2sO families of the
conquered, setting in their places colonists
from Babylonia. This event, which is COM
memorated in the Bible as having occurred in
the sixth year of Hezekiah, Colonel Rawin-
son supposes must have taken place subsequent
ly to the building of the palace of khorsabad,
on one of the tablets of which the monarch
styles himself Emperor of the remote Judea'
Sennacherib, the son of Sargina of Shalma-
neser, is the king who built the great palace of
koyunjik, which Mr.. Layard has been recently
excavating. The Inscriptions on one of the
SN'OSSoi
cavated palace shows that, in the third year of
his reign he conquered Luliga, king of Sidon
aud then, while turning his arms against some
other cities of Syria, learned of an insurrec-
tion in Palestine, where the people had risen
against their king Padiya, who had been placed
over them by the Assyrians, compelling him
to take refuge with Hezekiah at Jerusalem.
Padiya was restored by Sennacherib and
ute, the proud king of kings chastised him by
ravaging his kingdom, threatening his capital,
compelling him to pay heavy and ignomin-
Gus fine, and taking away a portion of his
lands and villages, and transferring them TO
other more faithful or more prudent vassals.-
The inscrptive history here tallies so perfectly
with the biblical, that the agreement SAYS
Col. Rawlinson, 'extends even to the number
of the talents of gold and silver which were
given as tribute The inscription only covers
seven years of Sennacherib's reign, and of
course, does not reach the event Of the miracu-
lous destruction of his army, which Col. R.
supposes to have happened fourteen or fifteen
years later. The discovery of complete set
of stone annals, should it be fortunately made
by Mr.. Layard, will prove an event of incalcu-
liable interest.
Colonel r. tells usthere is in the British
Museum, an Assyrian relic, containing tol-
erably perfect copy of the annals of Esar-Had-
don tho CON of Sanpacborih in ,,bicb is 70
corded further deportation of Israelites from
Palestine, which, he says, explains passage
in Ezra, in which the Samaritans speak of
Esar-Haddon, as the king by whom they were
carried into captivity. Many of the relics sent
home from Nineveh refer to Esar-Haddon,
whose wars were, fortunately for the Jews, d.
rected chiefly against Babylonia, Suisana, and
Armenia. He was the father of Saracus. or
Sardanapalus, the last of the Assyrian kings,
witt. whom the great empire. in fact, and the
vast city, its metropolis, fell, never to rise
again.
One of the most interesting matters saws
the learned antiquary, connected with this dis
covery of the identity of the Assyrian kings,
is the prospect, amounting almost to certain
ty, that we must have, in the bas-reliefs of
Chorsabad and Koyunjik, representations from
the chisels of contemporary artists, not only of
Samaria, but of that Jerusalem which con-
tanned the Temple Of Solomon. l have al
ready, he adds, identified the Samaritans
among the groups of captives portrayed upon
the marbles of Khorsabad and when l shall
have accurately learned the locality of the diff
ferent bas-reliefs that have been brought from
Koyunjk, do not doubt bht that shall be
able to point out the bands of Jewish maidens
who were delivered TO Sennacherib, and per-
haps to distinguish the portraiture of the hum
bled Hezekiah'
There is something of a character Of sacred
grandeur almost, as well as most solemn in
terest, which attaches to the researches Of Col
Rawlnson. NORTH American.
American Contributions.
VIM. A. Drew, in his last letter to the Cos
1f al A