The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-05
THE RUINS OF NINEVAH

the researches Of the archaeologists
among the ruins Of ancient Assyria
and Babylonia, the enthusiasm of
these patient delivers into the long
buried past has by no means dimin-
! ished. Already the museums of
Europe and America are filled with
the sculptures, bass reliefs, hierogly-
phics, specimens of glass and pottery,
and architectural remains of these
ancient centers of civilization. Thous-
ands of scholars and adventures of
all nationalities have contributed to
the task of excavating these memen-
toes Of the past and deciphering the
ouneiform inscriptions. Perhaps the
was Sir Austen Henry Layard, the
brated this week by archaeological
societies in many lands.
Layard was born in Paris, during
the temporary residence of his parents
in that city, on March 5, 1917. While
his father was a native of England, he
was descended from a Huguenot fam
lily. La.yard studied law in England,
but soon abandoned that occupation,
set forth on tour of exploration in
the East. Passing through widest
Albania and Roumelia to Constantine
pie, he made his way across Asia Mi
nor to Mesopotamia and Persia,
scarcely leaving untrod one spot hal
lowed by tradition, or unvisited one
ruin consecrated by history" During
this period of preparation for his life
o,,1xI :. I, L
bic language and kindred dialects, and
so assimilated his habits, dress and
general appearance to those of the
Arabs that he was frequently able to
pass for one Of that race
In 1912 he arrived at the squalid
village of Mosul, on the eastern banks
of the Tgris, opposite the ruins
which mark the site of the ancient
city of Nineveh, the capital of the
Assyrian Empire. M. Botta, backed
by the French government, was al
ready making excavations in that vi
cinity, and Layard was inspired with
an ambition to join in the work At
length he secured the financial back
ing Of Sir Stratford Canning, and
commenced work on the grea- mound
of Nimroud, south of Nineveh, and
the site of the ancient Calah, the sec
ond city of the Assyrian Empire. Later
he extended his explorations to the
mound Of Kouyunjik, one of those
which mark Nineveh, and other
places in the vicinity. The supersti-
ton and intractable character Of the
Arab workmen often placed great
obstacles in his way, but he persisted
and in 1847 he was able to send to
the British Museum many cases of an
tiquities, the principal nucleus of the
great Assyrian collection now to be
seen in that institution.
Layard later transferred his la bors
to Babylon, and upon his return to
England was given a popular ovation
and was elected to Parliament. He
was knighted in 1878, and in his later
years served as British ambassador to
Spain and Turkey. He died in 1894.
The world he helped to enlighten
owes debt of gratitude to Layard and
other brave pioneers who rised their
lives in that wild country where the
glory that was Nineveh and the
grandeur that was Babylon now lie in
ruins beneath the drifting sands of
the centuries
Where. Sennacherib and Sargon
drovo their triumphant chariots
through the roar of tumultuous thor
oughfares, amidst the shouts of a vic
torious soldiery," says Ridpath, "some
half-savage Kurds, sitting on the
broken stones of Bhorsa bad or Mt
Nimrud, watch distant flock, and at
the fall of night the jackal sets up a
howl as he issues from his den in the
basement Of ruined palace