DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0122
90 SCULPTURE IN WESTERN ASIA.
tion, executed for Assur-nazir-pal, and decorated with his exploits, the stone
carving is most clearly an imitation of metal. Thus the figures, as a chariot
and its horses, are bent right around the corner of the obelisk, after the manner
of a pliable metal relief, but out of keeping with the nature of stone carving.
That not only parts of buildings were incrusted with metal, but, likewise,
figures of the gods, appears from an historical tablet of Tiglath Pileser II.
(about 745 B.C.), discovered at Nimroud, in which he says, "And figures carved
in the likeness of the great gods I made, and they inspired reverence. Coats
of Karri gold, silver, and copper I covered over them. I beautified their work-
manship ; " but, of course, figures so tempting to the avarice of man have not
been preserved.
This practice of covering a cheaper material with metal we meet later. It
was continued by the Phoenicians in the construction of Solomon's temple,
and handed on to the Greeks, to play an important part in their glorious art.
On a fertile plain eighteen kilometers north-east from Mosul at Khorsabad,
Assyrian sculptures were discovered, in many respects different from the older
monuments at Nimroud. Khorsabad was first excavated by the French consul,
Botta, in 1848; but the work was completed with rare thoroughness by Place in
1864. In these mounds was laid bare the work of Sargon, a usurper, who, after
fifteen years of conquest and bloodshed, here built his palace and city between
711 and 705 B.C. He himself in extant monuments tells his story. "At the
foot of Mount Mousri, in order to take the place of Nineveh, I made, according
to divine will, and desire of my heart, a city which I called Hisir Sargon. I have
constructed it that it may resemble Nineveh, and the gods who reign in Meso-
potamia have blessed the splendid walls and the superb streets of this city.
In order to call thither inhabitants to inaugurate the temple and the palace
where is enthroned my majesty, I have chosen the name, I have traced the
enclosure, I have named it after my name."12?
Here, on the plain stretching away to the Tigris, within a mile of hilly sum-
mits, human hands have piled up at Sargon's behest 1,350,000 cubic meters of
clay, kneaded like that so vividly described by the prophet Nahum. So vast is
this mound, that we hardly know which most awakens wonder, — the number of
hands required to toil in its erection, or the strange phenomenon of an artificial
hill, raised in close proximity to mountains where not only rock abounded, but
many a summit offered itself suitable for the site of a new capital. On this
hill of clay was found, spread out in vast proportions, Sargon's royal residence,
besides a small building, from its general disposition supposed to be a throne-
room or audience-hall, and, to the south, one of those solid terraced pyramids of
sun-dried brick, built in stages of diminishing circumference, and doubtless
serving, as in Chalda^a, for religious purposes. It seems to have had seven
stages, corresponding to the seven heavenly bodies,—the sun, moon, and five
tion, executed for Assur-nazir-pal, and decorated with his exploits, the stone
carving is most clearly an imitation of metal. Thus the figures, as a chariot
and its horses, are bent right around the corner of the obelisk, after the manner
of a pliable metal relief, but out of keeping with the nature of stone carving.
That not only parts of buildings were incrusted with metal, but, likewise,
figures of the gods, appears from an historical tablet of Tiglath Pileser II.
(about 745 B.C.), discovered at Nimroud, in which he says, "And figures carved
in the likeness of the great gods I made, and they inspired reverence. Coats
of Karri gold, silver, and copper I covered over them. I beautified their work-
manship ; " but, of course, figures so tempting to the avarice of man have not
been preserved.
This practice of covering a cheaper material with metal we meet later. It
was continued by the Phoenicians in the construction of Solomon's temple,
and handed on to the Greeks, to play an important part in their glorious art.
On a fertile plain eighteen kilometers north-east from Mosul at Khorsabad,
Assyrian sculptures were discovered, in many respects different from the older
monuments at Nimroud. Khorsabad was first excavated by the French consul,
Botta, in 1848; but the work was completed with rare thoroughness by Place in
1864. In these mounds was laid bare the work of Sargon, a usurper, who, after
fifteen years of conquest and bloodshed, here built his palace and city between
711 and 705 B.C. He himself in extant monuments tells his story. "At the
foot of Mount Mousri, in order to take the place of Nineveh, I made, according
to divine will, and desire of my heart, a city which I called Hisir Sargon. I have
constructed it that it may resemble Nineveh, and the gods who reign in Meso-
potamia have blessed the splendid walls and the superb streets of this city.
In order to call thither inhabitants to inaugurate the temple and the palace
where is enthroned my majesty, I have chosen the name, I have traced the
enclosure, I have named it after my name."12?
Here, on the plain stretching away to the Tigris, within a mile of hilly sum-
mits, human hands have piled up at Sargon's behest 1,350,000 cubic meters of
clay, kneaded like that so vividly described by the prophet Nahum. So vast is
this mound, that we hardly know which most awakens wonder, — the number of
hands required to toil in its erection, or the strange phenomenon of an artificial
hill, raised in close proximity to mountains where not only rock abounded, but
many a summit offered itself suitable for the site of a new capital. On this
hill of clay was found, spread out in vast proportions, Sargon's royal residence,
besides a small building, from its general disposition supposed to be a throne-
room or audience-hall, and, to the south, one of those solid terraced pyramids of
sun-dried brick, built in stages of diminishing circumference, and doubtless
serving, as in Chalda^a, for religious purposes. It seems to have had seven
stages, corresponding to the seven heavenly bodies,—the sun, moon, and five