The sculptures that arrived in Britain gave the British Museum a collection to rival that of the Louvre in France. The British Ambassador in Constantinople was keen to see Assyrian sculptures displayed in Britain and he obtained authorisation from the Ottoman government to export some of the finds to London, while other finds remained in situ in Iraq. Rassam continued to dig at Nineveh on behalf of the British Museum and in 1853 discovered the North Palace of Ashurbanipal, with its brilliantly carved sculptures. Drawing showing the winged bulls found by Layard at Nimrud. It was there that he finally unearthed the fabled city of Nineveh. 1850–60, hand-coloured lithograph on canvas.Įxcited by these finds, the British government, through the British Museum, took over as sponsor and in 1847 Layard moved to the mound of Kuyunjik, across the river Tigris in front of Mosul. Possibly George Scharf (1820–1895), Layard and Rassam at work in Nimrud, c. They soon unearthed monumental winged bulls and lions that used to flank the gates of an Assyrian palace. From 1845 Layard, with the invaluable help of Hormuzd Rassam, an archaeologist from Mosul, and his team began excavations at Nimrud. Layard persuaded the ambassador to personally fund excavations at the site of Nimrud. These discoveries captured the attention of Austen Henry Layard, a young British explorer who worked as assistant to the British ambassador in Constantinople.

The excavation findings were published under the title Monuments of Nineveh, as Botta wrongly believed that he had found the famed ancient city. 1850.Įxcavations began in 1842 when the French consul, Paul Émile Botta, commissioned by the Louvre museum, began digging at the site of Khorsabad, where he discovered a city built by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Frederick Charles Cooper, watercolour showing excavations at Nineveh. Region, fuelled pioneering archaeological excavations. Rivalry between both countries, as well as their political interest in the France and Britain both had a consulate in Mosul and the imperial

NationalisticĪt this time, the region of Mosul was part of the OttomanĮmpire. The Old Testament recounts the city’s annihilation by divine wrath and, from the Middle Ages, interest in biblical evidence motivated travellers and geographers to try and locate the city.īut it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that the location of Nineveh – near Mosul in northern Iraq – was confirmed. Greek and Roman sources talk of the extravagant suicide of its last king Sardanapalus (believed by some to be Ashurbanipal), surrounded by his gold and his concubines. Since classical times, writers have speculated about the fall of Assyria. George Woolliscroft Rhead after Ford Madox Brown, The Dream of Sardanapalus, print, 1890. Hugely powerful, Ashurbanipal ruled what was at the time the largest empire on earth but, within a few decades of his death, his empire had collapsed and his capital city burnt to the ground. The Museum’s current major exhibition explores the life of Assyria’s last great king, Ashurbanipal.

The city lost to time