Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-02-21
Recent Explorations In NineTeh In
Connection with Jewish HistOrT,


A regular monthly meeting of the
New York Historical Society was held
| Wednesday evening at the Society
building, corner of Second avenue
and Eleventh Street. The interesting
feature of the evening was q paper
read by James w. Gerard, Jr.. on the
Recent Explorations in Nineveh in
Connection with Jewish History"
A sketch was first given of the general
geography and early history of the
Mesopotamian region, and the sue
cessive establishments of the king
dOms of Babylon and Assyria, the
predominance of the latter as the great
empire Of the East, and the gradual
extension Of its power over all the
civilized world, until, in its turn,
overcome by the Bsbylonians, assist
ed by the Medes and other tribes
formerly tributary to the Assyrian
power. The contrast between the
former magnificeDce of Nineveh, the
city of three days Journey" and the
once great capital of the Assyrian
empire, and its present state, was
then vividly described. The lecturer
then took up the subject of recent |
into these ancient abodeG /
OF man undertaken by Messrs. Botta, |
Layard and others under I
the direction of the French Govern /
ment and the trustees of the British |
Under these explorations /
and the subsequent deeiphering of
the inscriptions by the ingenuity of
British and French philogists, the
speaker stated that the crust of time
l. i
mysteries of this buried empire; the
that now rise in solitary
grandeur over the Assyrian plain,
ike huge tombs of buried nation
Ility, are now being excavated by the
land Of earnest science; the seal
4 a continuous silence is extending
through twenty-five centuries is
.roken; the dumb ruins begin to
hake of the dust of ages and to speak
heir secrets into the wounded ear of
nodern civilization and reveal the
tory of their hidden wonders and
asst glories. They give sad token of )
he f1eeting nature of human gran !
eur, and bear solemn testimony and !
orrobOratiou of the truth of the !
lspired writings that are the founda- {
on of the Christian faith. Reference
as then made to the various objects !
art and luxury discovered among
he ruins, as we'll as those depicted in d
lie Scriptures, showing that the '
ssyrians were q great and luxurious 7
eople; that most of the useful arts 7
Ot only existed among them, but .
ere cultivated to the highest pitch, 9
I'd that in metallurgy, dress, furni- q
re, jewelry, architecture, &C., they g
ere not much behind the moderns. d
detailed account was given of the y
ceessiye excavations of the mounds .
Niuroud, Kojunjik, ,Khorsabad and d
her places on the east bank of the o.
girls, in the vicinity of the modern o
osul, and of the colossal human 81
AIDED winged bulls and sphinxes -.
d alabaster slabs and clay cylinders I,
scovered there and transported to u
e European museums. These, it -
IS shown, had been the subject of b
rnest scientific investigation, and 10
e inscriptions on them successfully tte
owing they contained valuable his %
-ical matter-amoDg other things ID
: annals of the different kings, the pi
tional archives, and also chronO- In
-ical and historical statistics con- I"
eted with eotemporaneous nations. Is
Information was then su
'en with reference to the connection Ie
The Assyrians under their various ar
lgs. IN
The lecture closed with an account 10
the final destruction of Nineveh 10
the Medes and Babylonians, and
nations from prophetical writing De
dieting its doom. De