Nineveh Sails for the New World: Assyria Envisioned by Nineteenth-Century America - Steven W....

8/9/2019 Nineveh Sails for the New World: Assyria Envisioned by Nineteenth-Century America - Steven W. Holloway

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Nineveh Sails for the New World: Assyria Envisioned by Nineteenth-Century America

Author(s): Steven W. HollowaySource: Iraq, Vol. 66, Nineveh. Papers of the 49th Rencontre Assriologique Internationale, PartOne (2004), pp. 243-256Published by: British Institute for the Study of IraqStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4200578

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243NINEVEH SAILSFORTHE NEW WORLD:ASSYRIAENVISIONEDBY NINETEENTH-CENTURYAMERICA

By STEVENW. HOLLOWAY*

I respectAssyria,China,Teutonia,and the Hebrews;I adopteach theory,myth,god and demi-god;I see thatthe old accounts,bibles,genealogies, retrue,withoutexception;I assert hatall past dayswere whattheyshould have been.Walt Whitman:WithAntecedents1860)

In order to understand the unique reception of ancient Assyria in nineteenth-century America, itis necessary to describe the British public's own reception of the earliest British Museum exhibits,together with the marketing of publications of Layard and others. And, in order to grasp somethingof both Britain's and America's keen fascination with the earliest images of Assyria, I mustintroduce you briefly to the changing perceptions and tastes in admissible historical representationthat, I believe, drove this fascination.The British public's breathless enthusiasm for the monuments from Bible lands had radicalorigins in English soil. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century antiquarians surveyed, sketched andwove theories about the prehistoric relics that dot the English landscape, occasionally linkingthem with a mythical Christian past. William Stukeley, for example, student and first biographerof Sir Isaac Newton, made something of a career out of surveying Avebury and Stonehenge, inan early eighteenth-century quest for evidence that could link the Britons of Celtic fame with thepeoples and the received timeline of the Bible.' By the early nineteenth century, the Gothic Revivalmovement had begun in eamest. Its proponents saw this project as a moral mainstay in therevitalization of English society and culture. English prehistoric and medieval monuments wouldbe measured, drawn, catalogued, published, and ultimately by so doing, laid at the feet of theBritish public.2 The Napoleonic wars accelerated this movement, for Continental sightseeing wasimpossible, so the classic Grand Tour evaporated down to an insular walking tour. This of coursefuelled the sense of British national destiny:

Workson topography.. tend to make us betteracquaintedwith every thing whichexists in our nativeland,and aretherefore onducive o theprogress f realknowledge, o the diffusion f rationalpatriotism,and to virtuoussentiments ndpropensities...* AmericanTheologicalLibraryAssociation.1SeeWilliamStukeley, alaeographiaSacra: or, Discourseson Monuments of Antiquity that Relate to Sacred History:Number 1. A Comment on an Ode of Horace, Shewing theBacchus of the Heathen to be the Jehovah of the Jews(London:Printed or W. Innysand R. Manby,1736); dem,Stonehenge:A TempleRestor'd to the BritishDruids(London:Printed or W. Innysand R. Manby, 1740);StuartPiggot,WilliamStukeley. An Eighteenth-CenturyAntiquary(Oxford:ClarendonPress, 1950); David Boyd Haycock,"'A SmallJourneynto theCountry':WilliamStukeley nd the FormalLandscapes f Stonehenge ndAvebury",n Producing thePast: Aspects of Antiquarian Culture and Practice 1700-1850 (ed. MartinMyroneand Lucy Peltz; ReinterpretingClassicism: ulture,Reaction ndAppropriation;ldershot:Ashgate, 1999) 67-82; idem, William Stukeley: Science,

Religion, and Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century England(Woodbridge, uffolk,UK; Rochester,NY: BoydellPress,2002).2Derek D. Churchill, AGothic Renaissancen ModernBritain", n Modern Gothic: the Revival of Medieval Art

(ed. Susan B. Matheson and Derek D. Churchill; NewHaven: Yale University Press, 2000) 10-35; Georg German,Gothic Revival in Europe and Britain: Sources, Influencesand Ideas (trans. Gerald Onn; London: Lund Humphrieswith the Architectural Association, 1972), especially 24-73;Megan Aldrich, Gothic Revival (London: Phaidon Press,1994) chapterS, "GothicArchaeology and Gothic Propriety",129-73; Roderick O'Donnell, "'An Apology for the Revival':the Architecture of the Catholic Revival in Britain andIreland", in Gothic Revival: Religion, Architectureand Stylein WesternEurope 1815-1914 (ed. Jan De Maeyer and LucVerpoest;Leuven, University Press, 2000) 35-48. The stand-ard textbook on Victorian Gothic remains Charles L.Eastlake, A History of the Gothic Revival; an Attemptto Show How the Tastefor Mediaeval Architecture WhichLingered in England During the Two Last Centuries HasSince Been Encouragedand Developed (London: Longmans,Green, and Co., 1872).

3Anon., "Review of Nicholas Carlisle, TopographicalDictionary of England", The Anti-Jacobin Review andMagazine 29 No. January-April (1808) 266.Iraq LXVI (2004) = RAI 49/1 (2005)


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244 STEVEN W. HOLLOWAYAnother theme that ran through the debate over British medievalmonumentswas that ofProtestant upercessionism. ontemplation f the past, through ts preservationf the remainsofabbeys,cathedrals, nd othermonastic oundations, ieldssoberinghistorical essons.In thewordsof UvedalePrice (1794), "The ruinsof these magnificent dificesare the pride and boast of this

island;we may well be proud of them,not merely n a picturesque oint of view we mayglorythat the abodes of tyrannyand superstition re in ruins".4The preparation orthe extraordinaryeffortexpended o excavate,record,andtransferMiddleEasternartifacts o a fascinatedEnglandwas thusforeshadowed y indigenous xperience nd culturaloutlook. Preservation f thematerialpast was a meansof realizingnationalheritage,andat the same time, thepreservation f Catholicruinsbespoke the demonstration f the Bible throughprophetic ulfilment,a theme that wouldbe greatlyamplified hrough he recoveryof fabled Nineveh.5As the ascendantevangelicalmovementmagnified he placeof the Biblein daily life as well ascorporateworship, llustrations f biblicalevents andplacesallowedthepublic, iterateor not, toinhabit he texts of theOld and New Testamentsnunprecedented ays.AlthoughBritish ravellersto the SouthernLevanthadpublished ravelogueswithillustrations f Holy Landsites,includingEgyptandMesopotamia,ince he seventeenthentury, opular ppetiteor suchvicariousxperiencewas whettedby Britishcommercial,militaryand leisuredpresencen the early nineteenth-centuryOrient.Napoleon Bonaparte'sdazzling expeditionto Egypt in 1798culminated n the Britishmilitarycontainmentof his ambitionsby 1801.6"Theseare favourable imes for travellers n theLevant",wrote Dr EdwardClarke of events in 1801, "whenfrigatesare daily sailing in alldirections,and the Englishnameis so much respected".7 he explorationof coastal SyriaandPalestine,while besetwith unromanticdangers romdisease and brigands,was less fraughtwithperilthan travel hroughCisjordan nd the ArabianPeninsula,whichseveral ntrepidEnglishmenbroughtoff by travelling ncognito in Arab dress.Throughthe publicationof such illustratedbooks as Travelsin Egypt and Nubia, Syria and Asia Minor; During the years 1817 & 1818, andNotes During a Visit to Egypt, Nubia, the Oasis Boeris, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem,8a formidablevisual "database" f Holy Land vistasbeganto transform agueideals of the appearance f theNear East and its inhabitants nto concreteimagesof cityscapesand landscapes.This in turncreateda climate n which the old styleartof biblical llustration,ike the stagingof orientalizingtheatricalswith turbans,curved scimitarsand other hackneyedvisualcues, was supplantedbydrawings, engravingsand paintingsthat sought to projectfactual and accuratedepictionsofregional iveryand topographical etail backwardsnto biblicalnarratives.n the 1836preface oFinden and Finden, Landscapellustrationsf theBible,the publisherJohnMurray I stipulatedthat it comprised"A series of matteroffact views of placesmentioned n the Bible as theynowexist".9As was true with the landscapedrawingsof prehistoricmenhirsand medievalEnglishruins, the visually iterateand readingBritishpublichad been educated o desirea retrospectivepastthat embodiednot only pictorialdetailsworthyof a professionaldraftsman,but a cultureofbiblicalart and sciencethatcaptured he "antiquities f sacredscripture".10

4Quoted n Ian Ousby,The Englishman'sEngland: Taste,Traveland the Rise of Tourism Cambridgend New York:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1990)107.50n the complex ssueof the socialmovementsbehindthe rise of modernarchaeologyn VictorianGreat Britain,of which heGothicRevivalmovementwasa prime mbodi-ment, eePhilippaLevine, The Amateurand the Professional:Antiquarians, Historians, and Archaeologists in VictorianEngland, 1838-1886 (CambridgeCambridgeshire]nd NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1986).6Terence M. Russell, d. The Napoleonic Survey of Egypt.Description de l'Egypte: The Monuments and Customs ofEgypt: Selected Engravings and Texts (Burlington,VT:Ashgate,2001);Donald MalcolmReid, Whose Pharaohs?Archaeology, Museums, and Egyptian National Identity romNapoleon to World WarI (Berkeley: University f CaliforniaPress, 2002) 31-6.7William Otter,TheLife and Remains of the Rev. EdwardDaniel Clarke, LL. D., Professor of Mineralogy in theUniversity of Cambridge(London:J. F. Dove, 1824)477,

quoting a letter by Clarke. See Edward Daniel Clarke,Travels in Various Countries of Europe Asia and Africa,Part 2. Greece Egypt and the Holy Land (2nd ed.; London:T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1813).'Charles Leonard Irby and James Mangles, Travels inEgypt and Nubia, Syria, and Asia Minor; During the Years1817 & 1818 (London: T. White and Co., Printers, 1823);Frederick Henniker, Notes During a Visit to Egypt, Nubia,the Oasis Boeris, Mount Sinai, and Jerusalem (2nd ed.;London: John Murray, 1824).'William Finden, Edward FInden, and Thomas HartwellHorne, Landscape Illustrations of the Bible; Consisting ofViews of the Most Remarkable Places Mentioned in the Oldand New Testaments. From Original Sketches Taken on theSpot (2 vols; London: John Murray, 1836).0For an excellent survey on the topic, see T. S. R. Boase,"Biblical Illustration in Nineteenth Century English Art",Journal of the Warburgand Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966)349-67.


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NINEVEHSAILS FOR THE NEW WORLD 245The creationof modernAssyriology n VictorianEnglandas a discipline annotbe understoodapart romthe biblicalarchaeologymovement,a movementdevoted o thewaragainstContinentalskepticism ndirreligion."Whateverheir ntrinsic ascination, he relicsof ancientAssyriawouldbe mustered nto immediatebattlelike sailorssweptup by press-gangso serve n Her Majesty'sNavy. As British ommercial nd militarynterestsgainedground n the MiddleEast,missionariesand biblicalspecialistswith an empiricalbent set out to measure he altitudeof the JordanRiveror link biblicalplaceswith modern oponyms.The selfsamerational nvestigative echniquesusedby deistsand other agnosticsto expose the perceived rudedeceptionsof Christianitywould beappropriated y Christian pologists triving o vindicate heliteralhistoricity f the Biblethroughthe authorityof the monuments,whether Judaeanor Assyrian.The paradox of the biblicalarchaeologymovement residedin its staunch if unimaginativeVictorian faith in progress:asknowledgeof pastcivilizationsmounted n an open-ended piral, t was fancied hat the historicaltruthof sacred cripturewould be made impregnablegainstrationalcontest.News from Ninevehcouldonly hastenthe victory.While Americacould not experience Gothic Revivalrootedin its own past, the young nationenjoyedmanifold iesto theancientworld.Thepoliticsof the livingNear East informedAmerican

foreignpoliciesas early as 1778,when John Adams and ThomasJeffersonpetitionedCongressfor permission o negotiatewith the BarbaryStates;a series of treaties, trade agreementsandsmall warswould ensue.'2AmericanProtestants,mbuedwith an ideologystemmingn part fromPuritanconvictionsof election,in part from a consciousnessof embodyinga uniqueexperimentin political ndependence, eganaggressiveproselytism f the Biblelandsin the 1820s,generatingwidely circulatedmissionaryettersfor domesticperiodicalsand evangelical racts.'3Knowledgeof and identificationwith the classicalheritageof Greeceand Rome followedEuropeansettlersacrossNorth America,as witnesscountlessGreco-Romanplace namesand birthrecords.EdwardEverett, he Eliot Professorof GreekLiterature t Harvard n 1815,perhaps he first Americanstudentof classicalarchaeology,preparedhimselfby studyingclassicsand philology n Germanyand by visiting numerouscollectionson the Continent.'4Elite New Englandperiodicals peedilytranslatedworksof Germanclassicalphilologyandhistoriography,ndrecounted he installationof the ElginMarbles n the BritishMuseum.15Morepopularwere narratives f journeys hrough

" A situation that was openly embraced by many at thetime; for representative examples, see George Rawlinson,The Historical Evidencesof the Truthof the Scripture RecordsStated Anew, with Special Reference to the Doubts andDiscoveries of Modern Times. In Eight Lectures Deliveredin the Oxford University Pulpit, in the Year 1859, on theBampton Foundation (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1868);idem, "Early Oriental History [review of F. Lenormant,Manuel d'histoire ancienne de l'Orient jusqu'aux guerresmediques]", The Contemporary Review 14 No. April-July(1870) 80-100; idem, Historical Illustrations of the OldTestament (London: Christian Evidence Committee of theSociety for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1871 ); DonaldJ. Wiseman, The Expansionof Assyrian Studies;An InauguralLecture Delivered on 27 February1962 (London: School ofOriental and African Studies, University of London, 1962)11; P. R. S. Moorey, A Century of Biblical Archaeology(Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991) 1-24.For parallels on the other side of the Atlantic, see NeilAsher Silberman, "Between Athens and Babylon: The AIAand the Politics of American Near Eastern Archaeology,1884-1997", in Excavating Our Past: Perspectives on theHistory of the ArchaeologicalInstituteof America(ed. SusanHeuck Allen; Colloquia and Conference Papers Vol. 5;Boston: Archaeological Institute of America, 2002) 115-22.2Charles 0. Paullin, "Naval Administration under theNavy Commissioners", UnitedStates Naval InstituteProceed-ings 33 (1907) 624; Fuad Sha'ban, Islam and Arabs in EarlyAmerican Thought: The Roots of Orientalism in America(Durham, NC: Acorn Press, 1991) 65-81.

" Clifton Jackson Phillips, Protestant America and thePagan World:The First Hal Century of the AmericanBoardof Commissionersor ForeignMissions, 1810-1860 (HarvardEast Asian Monographs 32; Cambridge:Harvard UniversityPress, 1969) 133-71; Sha'ban, Islam and Arabs in EarlyAmerican Thought, 83-114. American missionaries evinceinterest in European archaeological exploits in Mesopotamia(Khorsabad) as early as 1844; letter of Thomas Laurie,Mosul, August 8, 1844, Missionary Herald 41 (1845) 40-2.Ten years hence, with the help of Henry Rawlinson, theAmerican missionary Henry Lobdell would procure Neo-Assyrian relief slabs and other antiquities for Americancolleges; William Seymour Tyler, Memoir of Rev. HenryLobdell, M.D., Late Missionary of the American Board atMosul; Including the Early History of the Assyrian Mission(Boston: American Tract Society, 1859) 243-4; SelahMerrill,"Assyrianand Babylonian Monuments in America",Bibliotheca Sacra 32 No. 126 (1875) 320-49.Thomas C. Patterson, Toward a Social History ofArchaeology n the UnitedStates (Case Studiesin ArchaeologyOrlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace College Publishers,1995) 23. Everett strongly promoted American Protestantmissionary efforts among the Greeks during the Greco-Turkish conflict; Edward Everett, "Affairs of Greece", NorthAmerican Review 17 (1823) 398-424.5I am here thinking of the Biblical Repository andBibliothecaSacra, both founded by Edward Robinson, andThe Princeton Review.


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246 STEVEN W. HOLLOWAYSyria-Palestine nd the connectionsmade betweenextant ruins and the pages of the King JamesBible. The American author John Lloyd Stephens' Incidents of Travels n Egypt, Arabia Petraea,and the Holy Land, originallypublished n 1837, had sold 21,000 copies by the following year,and continued n print until 1882.16In the world of academe,EdwardRobinson, the man whoorganized biblical archaeology as a discipline, took the coveted gold medal of the RoyalGeographical ocietyof London n 1842 or hisBiblicalResearchesnPalestine."7 he exoticlandssurroundinghe Mediterraneanond,though separated y time and ocean,robustly nhabited heimaginationof antebellumAmerica.Considerablybefore the time of the French and British discoveries n Mesopotamia,theAmericanreadingpublic graspedthe promiseof controlledexcavations or unearthing he past.In the decade following the AmericanRevolution,Americanantiquarians egan to explore theenigmatic Native Americanearthworksof the MississippiValley.A tenacious mythologywasborn, based on romantic parallelsdrawnbetween the mounds of North America and similarartificial tructuresof the Old World,openingthe floodgatesof speculation.The identityof themounds' buildersheld more than academiccuriosity,however.The earnestnineteenth-centurydebate over their identityseverelytaxed the racial ideology of ManifestDestiny: for, if theculturally ophisticatedmound-builders ere ndeed he ancestorsof the livingNativeAmericans,and not thePhoenicians,Turanians,Hindusor the Ten Lost Tribesof Israel,amongother earnedguesses, henEuropean ettlers' laims to tribalhinterlands aised ntractablemoralquandaries."8In addition, nationalistic ealousy over Europeansuccess in Mesopotamiaalso spurredon theneed to sketch,dig andpublish n NorthAmerica. n the words of a New England avantwritingof Indianantiquitiesn 1855,"variousmonuments f our ancientpeople n theirpalmydays,standout beforeus ... in life-likeandimposingarray,worthy o be classedwiththeproudestmemorialsof fallen Thebes or buried Nineveh"."9What with the archaeological xploitsof the AmericanAntiquarianSocietyand the Smithsonian nstitutionat home,20 nd the explorationsof EdwardRobinson and others in Palestine,2' he Americanpublicgrewaccustomed o a diet of new andenthralling ntelligence f bygonepeoples,the moreclosely inkedto the Bible,the moreexciting.

Apart from countlessexegeticalsermons,Nineveh and other biblical ocalesfigured n manypopularAmericanperorations n the relationship etween hegloriouspastand thecontemptiblestateof the Ottomanpresent.Prior o theexcavationsn Mesopotamia, vangelicalwritersharpedon the themeof the utterdesolationof the sitesof ancientNinevehandBabylonand thedegeneracyof the present nhabitantsas visible, palpableproofsof biblicalprophecy ulfilled.For example,

"6John Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Egypt,Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land Edited, and with anIntroduction by Victor Wolfgang von Hagen (Norman,Oklahoma:University f OklahomaPress,1970)xxxviii-xl.17Patterson, ocial History of Archaeology, 24.18Theclassic early study of Native Americanhistorio-graphy is Samuel F. Haven, Archaeology of the UnitedStates; Or, Sketches, Historical and Bibliographical, of theProgress of Informationand Opinion Respecting Vestiges ofAntiquityin the United States (Smithsonian Contributions toKnowledgeVol. 8;Washington,D.C.: 1856),who patientlyassembles verypublishedheoryof the origins f themoundbuilders n the processof permittinghemost outlandishocollapseof their ownweight.For detailsof the creationofthe myth and its refutation, ee RobertSilverberg,MoundBuilders of Ancient America: The Archaeology of a Myth(Athens,Ohio and London:Ohio UniversityPress,1968).Onthetragichold of theideologiesof ManifestDestinyonNative Americanarchaeology, ee the brilliantstudy byAlice Beck Kehoe, The Land of Prehistory: A Critical

History of American Archaeology (New York and London:Routledge,1998)."9JohnL. Taylor,"AmericanAntiquities",BibliothecaSacra 12 (1855) 433-67.20Haven, Archaeology of the UnitedStates, 32-8, 61, 129;Ephraim George Squire and Edwin Hamilton Davis,

Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (SmithsonianContributionso KnowledgeVol.1;New York:Bartlett&Welford,1848).21The most up-to-date urveyexplorations n the HolyLand would figurein the voluminouswriting career of

Robinson, whose Biblical Researches in Palestine, MountSinai and Arabia Petraea. A Journal of Travels in the Year1838, by E. Robinson and E. Smith. Undertaken n Referenceto Biblical Geography. Drawn up from the Original Diarieswith Historical Illustrations, first published in 1841, createdin largemeasure he genreof the biblical rchaeology eportandtravel-guide. ven he UnitedStatesNavyfinanced hefirst ull nautical xploration f the Dead Sea in the courseof the voyageof LieutenantW. F. Lynch n 1842,partofthe UnitedStatesExploringExpedition, 838-42,voyagingto SouthAmerica,Oceania, ndtheMediterranean; illiamFrancis Lynch, Narrative of the United States's Expeditionto the River Jordan and the Dead Sea (Philadelphia:Lea and Blanchard, 1849); idem, Official Report of theUnited States' Expedition to Explore the Dead Sea andthe River Jordan, by Lieut. W F. Lynch, US.N. Publishedat the National Observatory,Lieut. M. F. Maury, U.S.N.,Superintendent.By Authority of the Hon. Wm.A. Graham,Secretary of the Navy (Baltimore: John Murphy & Co.,1852).


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NINEVEH SAILS FOR THE NEW WORLD 247in the exceedingly popular work by Alexander Keith, Evidence of the Truth of the ChristianReligion, Derivedfrom the Literal Fulfillment of Prophecy (in its 35th reprint by 1848), he takesthe cities prophesied against in the Bible, reproduces the prophecies themselves in italics, and linksthem in a narrative compounded of travellers' tales and Keith's own sonorous moralizing in a"demonstration" of the prophecy's fulfilment.22

Learned American theologians shared the suspicions of their European colleagues that the siteof ancient Nineveh was known, and that exploration of the looming tells near Mosul would leadto discoveries that would advance knowledge of the Bible. For instance, the Andover TheologicalSeminary divine B. B. Edwards published an essay in 1837 entitled "Ruins of Ancient Nineveh",in which he combs classical and biblical literature for geographical data about the city, then givesa competent digest of its visitations by Westerners, chronicling the detailed surveys made in earlynineteenth century by the British Resident in Baghdad, Claudius James Rich.Mr. Rich discovereda piece of fine brick or pottery, covered with exceedingly mall and beautifulcuneiformwriting... Not far from this mound[Koyunjik], n immensebas-relief, epresentingmen andanimals,coveringa greystone of the height of two men, was dug up, a few years since, from a spot alittle above the surfaceof the ground... The questionwhether hese ruins will prove to be the actualremainsof the Ninevehof the Hebrewprophets,which Mr. Rich and others, have conjecturedwith somuch probability,may hereafterbe put at rest by the researches f still more fortunate ravellers.23

Another venue of American interest in ancient Nineveh stemmed from missionary work amongthe Nestorians in Kurdistan. An American Presbyterian mission was established in Urmiah in1834; rancorous publicity and deadly politics would ensue.24 Curious to relate, the archaeologicalexploits of the British in Mesopotamia radically refocused Western interest in this ancient Christiancommunity. In his chief publications, Austin Henry Layard proclaimed these historic, linguistic,and religious minorities to be "as much the remains of Nineveh, and Assyria, as the rude heapsand ruined palaces".25The Anglican observer J. P. Fletcher wrote in 1850 that "the Chaldeans

22Alexander Keith,Evidenceof the Truthof the ChristianReligion, Derived from the Literal Fulfillment of Prophecy;Particularly as Illustrated by the History of the Jews, andby the Discoveries of Recent Travellers(reprintof the 6thEdinburgh d.; New York:J. & J. Harper,1832). Oneexamplewill suffice:"'You find here[Tyre]no similitudeof thatgloryforwhich t wasso renownedn ancient imes.You see nothing here but a mereBabel of broken walls,pillars, vaults,&c. Its present nhabitants re only a fewpoor wretches,harbouring hemselves n the vaults, andsubsisting hiefly upon fishing,who seem to be preservedin this place by DivineProvidence, s a visibleargumenthow God hathfulfilledHis WordconcerningTyre"',240,quoting romMaundrell'sourney rom Aleppo to Jerusalem.23 Bela Bates Edwards, "Ruins of Ancient Nineveh",The American Biblical Repository 9 No. 25 (1837) 157-9.Edwards' ssaywasobviously nspiredby the posthumouspublication f Claudius amesRich,Narrativeof a Residencein Koordistan, and on the Site of Ancient Nineveh; WithJournal of a Voyage Down the Tigris to Bagdad and anAccount of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis (ed. by hiswidow;London:JamesDuncan, 1836)."In the forefrontof the economicandimperial ngage-ments of the West in Asia, the American Board ofCommissionersor ForeignMissionsdispatched wo NewEngland-bornmissionaries o the Nestoriansof PersianAzerbaijann 1831.A missionwas establishedn Urmiahin 1834 led by Justin Perkins(1805-96), a tutor fromAmherstCollege, who for the next 36 yearswould workamong the Nestoriansand publish ravelogueetters illedwith intriguingnews aboutregionalantiquities, uins,andethnographicolour.Extremelynaivediplomacyand rashdeedson the partof the Americanmissionaries psetthedelicate political applecartin the region, and in 1843Kurdish orcesslaughtered undreds f thelocalNestorian

Christians.American ewspapersndperiodicalswerealivewith recriminations nd fiercedenunciationsof Catholicand Anglicanmeddling n a missionary ield that, manyfulminated,ightlybelonged o American rotestants.ustinPerkins,MissionaryLife in Persia: BeingGlimpses t a Quarterof a Century of Labors Among the Nestorian Christians(Boston:AmericanTractSociety,1861);Phillips,ProtestantAmerica and the Pagan World, 147-59;JohnJoseph,TheModern Assyrians of the Middle East: Encounters withWestern Christian Missions, Archaeologists, and ColonlPowers (Studies n ChristianMissionVol.26;Leiden:Brill,2000) 67-85. On the competitionbetween the Americanand Britishmissions to the Nestorians of Urmiah, seeJ. F. Coakley,The Church of the East and the ChurchofEngland: A History of the Archbishop of Canterbury'sAssyrian Mission (Oxford:ClarendonPress,1992)30-54.2 AustenHenryLayard,Ninevehandits Remains(London:John Murray, 1849) 5. While in Constantinople,Layardhad by 1843 filled three manuscriptnotebooks with anunpublished tudy,"An Inquiry nto the Origin,History,Languageand Doctrinesof the Chaldean or NestorianTribes of Kurdistan"BritishLibraryMSS Add. 39061,39062,39063);Coakley,Church f the East,46. Layard'sassistant,HormuzdRassam,himselfa Chaldaeanwhosebrother'sather-in-law asan ardentChristianMissionarySocietymissionary,wouldplaya notablerole in promotingthe lineal linkage betweenthe ancientAssyriansand themodernNestorianChristians;HormuzdRassam,Asshurand the Land of Nimrod: Being an Account of the DiscoveriesMade in the Ancient Ruins of Nineveh, Asshur, Sepharvain,Caleh, Babylon, Borsippa, Cuthah, and Van. Including aNarrative of Different Journeys in Mesopotamia, Assyria,Asia Minor, and Koordistan (Cincinnatiand New York:Curtis& Jennings,1897) 167-83;Coakley,Churchof theEast, 44-6.


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248 STEVEN W. HOLLOWAY

Fig. 1 Illustrated London News, 28 February 1852, 184.and the Nestorians" are "the only surviving human memorial of Assyria and Babylonia".26Thecombination of living Assyrian fossil and a beckoning missionary field would prove irresistible tothe American evangelical press.In 1849, the British Museum mounted the first major display of Assyrian antiquities in England(Fig. 1 .27 While the public had enjoyed access to published images of British-sponsoredexcavationsin Mesopotamia since early 1846, by October 1850 it became possible to make a comfortableexcursion to the British Museum and sate one's curiosity literally at the knees of colossal human-headed bulls. The popularity of the first British Museum exhibits of Assyrian sculptures is difficultto grasp from our modern coign of vantage. Although the custodians of patrician British aestheticsdecried the rudeness of the "Assyrian marbles", the art of a stunted civilization immeasurablyinferior to the masterpieces of Athens and Rome,28ancient Assyria's exotic glamour, its evocationof British imperial success, but above all its association with the Bible served to galvanize thepublic. Following his first expedition, Austen Henry Layard composed a stirring narrative cast inthe guise of a travelogue, the genre commonly used to convey vicariously the vistas and vicissitudesencountered by westerners in the exotic Orient. The shrewd publisher John Murray III hiredmaster engravers to turn the excellent sketches and watercolors of Layard and others into enduringimages of Assyrian palace reliefs and action-scenes of local tribesmen labouring at the excavationface or struggling like pack animals to drag ponderous sculptures to the Tigris River.29

26 JamesPhillips Fletcher, Notes/romi Nineveh,and Travelsin Mesopotamia, Ass yria, and Syria (Philadelphia: Lea andBlanchard, 1850) 188. F. Bowen expressed grave doubtsregarding Layard's conclusion that the Nestorians ofKurdistan are the lineal descendants of the ancientAssyrians; F. Bowen, "Review of A. H. Layard, Ninevehand its Remains", North AmlericanReview 69 (1849) 140.

27 Although materials from Layard's excavations firstbecame accessible to the general public in a jammed"Antiquities Gallery" in 1848, the first room devoted solelyto the objects, the "Nimroud Room", a vacant area inthe basement, opened in mid-1849. The first of the bullcolossi arrived in a flurryof publicity in October 1850. Thesouthern side gallery saw the completion of its Assyrianrelief installations in 1852, whereas the south and northside galleries and the Assyrian Transept would not becomplete until February 1854. The Assyrian BasementGallery would be finished in 1859. See FrederickN. Bohrer,"A New Antiquity: The English Reception of Assyria"(Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Chicago, 1989)236-44; idem, Orientalism and Visual Culture: InaginingMesopotamia in Nineteenth-Centur.iEurope(Cambridge andNew York: Cambridge University Press, 2003) 114-31; Ian

Jenkins, Archaeologists&Aesthetes: In the SculptureGalleriesof the British Museunm 800-1939 (London: Published forthe Trustees of the British Museum by the British MuseumPress, 1992) 252-3; John Curtis, "Department of WesternAsiatic Antiquities: The British Museum, London", inVorderasiatischeMuseen:Gestern-Heute-Morgen erlin-Paris-London-Nen, York:Eine Standortbestimmung;Kolloquium usAnlass des Einhundertjahrigenestehensdes VorderasiatischenMuseums Berlin am 7. Mai 1999 (ed. Beate Salje; Mainz:Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2001) 37-49.

28 Regarding aesthetic assessments of Assyrian art inVictorian England, see Bohrer, "A New Antiquity", 251-62,282-3, 294-337; Jenkins, Archaeologists & Aesthetes, 68,155-7, 160; Frederick N. Bohrer, "Inventing Assyria:Exoticism and Reception in Nineteenth-Century Englandand France", Art Bulletin 80 (1998) 336-56.29For the details of Murray's role in the creation ofLayard's Nineveh and its Remains, see Bohrer, "A NewAntiquity", 135-51, and idem, "The Printed Orient: theProduction of A. H. Layard's Earliest Works", in TheConstruction of the Ancient Near East (ed. Ann ClyburnGunter; Culture& History Vol. 11; Copenhagen:AkademiskForlag, 1993) 85-103. On the life and career of the fascinating


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NINEVEH SAILSFOR THE NEW WORLD 249ThatLayard'sworkswerehugelypopularmaybe gaugedby thepublication ecord n bothEnglandand America.30 ineveh nd tsRemainswasissued n various ormatsbyJohnMurray hroughoutthe 1850s, and re-releasedas an abridgmentby the author in 1867 and 1882. The AmericanpublisherGeorge P. Putnampublishedruns of the original n 1849, 1850, 1851, 1852 (a printingof thirteen housandcopies), 1853, and 1854,with other editions by D. Appleton and Harper&

Sons. Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon was marketed in America by Putnamin 1853, A. S. Barnes & Co. in 1854, 1856, and 1865, Harper n 1853, 1856, 1859, and 1875.Murrayduplicatedhis strategywith the earliervolume by selling authorizedabridgmentsn 1867and 1882.3'There was no want of copies of these handsomely llustratedadventure tories forperusalby anyone.As early as 1850, a far-sightedart criticof the Assyrian monuments n the British Museumprophesied hatIt is not too muchto say,thatthe minute ruthfulnesswith whicheveryactionof lifehas beenrenderedby theseearly artists,has produceda total revolution n the styleof Biblicalannotation,as far as itsArchaeologys concerned; ndthatall authorsnow refer o thesepicturesor sculptures s to a pictorialcommentary,wonderful or its trueandperfectaccordancewiththe most minuteallusionsmadeby theinspiredwriters.32

In other words, from this point on, writerswishingto use persuasivepictorial llustrations orworkson ancientAssyriawouldbe compelled o relyon a visualidiom created n the 1840sand1850s. The idiom was based on drawingsmade by Layardand other artistsworkingin theexcavation ieldsof OttomanMesopotamia, xpertly ranslatedntoeasily recognizablengravingsby professionaldraftsmen, ogetherwith engravingsmade "on the spot"in the BritishMuseumfor periodicalspreads.Once the engravingshit the press, they would be recycled ime and timeagain, reinforcing he sense of authenticityof these "sermons n stone" throughsheer mediabombardment.Likemutatingviruses, he strikingLayard/Murrayllustrationsquicklyfoundnovel sourcesof-dissemination.George Rawlinson,CamdenProfessorof Ancient Historyat OxfordUniversityanda determined oe of Germanhighercriticism,hadthe uncannygood fortune o be the brotherof HenryCreswickeRawlinson,the celebratedEnglish decipherer f Akkadian.33Not only didHenry mpart ate-breaking ews of the ancientNear Eastto his Oxonianbrother n the guiseoftranslationsand historicalsyntheses,but Henry'sown fervourto interlace the inscriptionsofWesternAsia with the received portrait of the Bible suited the Akkadian-challengedGeorgeRawlinson's urposes dmirably.ohnMurray II,thepublisherwhopioneeredhemass-marketingof electrifyingAssyriologicaldevelopments or the Britishmiddleclass, commissionedGeorgeRawlinson n the early 1850sto producea definitive ranslationof Herodotus, ncludingmajoressays on Assyrianhistoryand religion, essays writtenby George and his brother. Under theauspicesof the enterprisingMurray, George Rawlinsonplagiarizedmost of his own essays inHerodotusVol. 1 for unrevised ncorporationnto his oft-reprinted ynthesesof ancienthistory,The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, n print from 1867 to 1900, only to besubsequently reproduced in The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World,in print1876 o 1900,republishedn 2002.34The Monarchiesolumeswere avishlyadornedwith hundredsof attractiveengravings, n fact the very same engravingspublishedearlierin Layard's twovolumes,a marketinggambit guaranteedo move inventory.Victorianpublisher ohnMurray II, seeJohn Murray V,John Murray III 1808-1892: A Brief Memoir (London:John Murray, 1919);George Paston, At John Murray's:Records of a Literary Circle 1843-1892 (London: JohnMurray,1932).300n the socialramifications f the recoveryof ancientAssyria n the 20thcentury, ee Bohrer,"ANewAntiquity",passim; Bohrer, Orientalism and Visual Culture, 66-271;Steven W. Holloway, A&?urs King!A?}uris King! Religionin the Exercise of Empire in the Neo-Assyrian Empire(Studies n the History and Cultureof the Ancient NearEast 10; Leiden:E. J. Brill, 2002) chapterone, and thebibliographyited therein.

31Publication data is based on RLIN and WorldCatdata-base queries, and physical examination of the hard copy inthe Joseph Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago.32Anon., "Nineveh and Persepolis", Art Journal ns 2(1850) 225.330n his life, see Ronald Bayne, "Rawlinson, George(1812-1902)", in Dictionary of National Biography,TwentiethCentury, January 1901-December 1911, Supplement, Vol. 3

(ed. Sidney Lee; London: Oxford University Press, 1951)165-7."Publication data is, again, based on a combination ofRLIN and WorldCat queries and physical inspection of thevolumes.


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250 STEVEN W. HOLLOWAYMw;-rIIt,:sr 7:x:. NN.\l' Iti;? S2 _ 1) CT1)B Y It.* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~to_2Y 1,ts. e 0. a . *a . 41,


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NINEVEH SAILS FOR THE NEW WORLD 251was lionized in the British Protestant press.37By contrast, some American and most Irish Catholicreviewers praised Layard as an archaeologist but snubbed his ethnography and raised seriousconcerns regarding his historiography of the ancient world.38Be that as it may, of the contemporary English-language reviews that I have canvassed, allwithout exception maintain the unshakeable conviction that Layard's excavations in Ninevehwould lead to the vindication of scriptural history. No reviewer questioned the enduring value ofthe work nor the necessity of continuing the exploration of the ancient tells of Mesopotamiafor the dual sake of Christian scholarship and evangelistic application. The anonymous reviewerfor The National Magazine expostulates:

How the researches f Botta and Layardsilencethe infidel,and strengthen he faith of the Christian,and assist us in the intelligent tudyof the sacredrecords! ncidentalallusionsby the historiansandprophets, o manners ndcustomsseeming trange,are verifiedby the monuments owbrought o light.It is demonstrated hat the Bible gives a true pictureof the ancient life of the world. The crumblingmound of Mosul, and the rest, show the fulfillmentof Scripturepropheciesrelative to the ruin ofNineveh; while the records of the past they so long entombed, but which are now revealed n thenineteenth entury,exhibitthe glory of Ninevehbefore ts ruin.39The American domestication of Victorian Assyria occurred through many media and touchedpeople at all levels of the socio-economic spectrum. American editions of Layard's first volumeappeared within months of Murray's initial publication, prepared by the New York firmG. P. Putnam from plates imported from England (Fig. 3).40 This edition of Nineveh and itsRemains contains a short introductory note by the distinguished American biblical scholar andPalestine geographer Edward Robinson, assuringthe readershipof the bona-fide nature of Layard'sefforts.41 But while unauthorized abridgements of Layard's text, as well as American editionsof George Rawlinson's History of Herodotus and his perennially popular Five Great Monarchiesof the Ancient Eastern World, graced American bookshops, many other venues of nascentAssyriological knowledge emerged. Aimed explicitly at a public hungry for biblical confirmation,

226-34; Anon., "A Day in Nineveh", The National Magazine:Devoted to Literature, Art, and Religion 2 (1853) 247-52;Anon., "The Buried Palaces of Nineveh", The NationalMagazine: Devoted to Literature, Art, and Religion 1 ( 1852)108-12; Anon., "News from Nineveh", The InternationalMonthly Magazine of Literature, Science and Art 1 (1850)476; Anon., "Austen Henry Layard, LL.D.", The InternationalMagazine of Literature, Art, and Science 2 No. 4 (1851)433-5; W. A. Lamed, "Review of A. H. Layard, Ninevehand its Remains", The New Englander 7 (1849) 327-8;L. W. Bacon, "Review of A. H. Layard, Discoveries Amongthe Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (Putnam edition)", TheNew Englander 11 (1853) 457-70; F. L. Hawks, "Reviewof A. H. Layard, Discoveries Among the Ruins of Ninevehand Babylon", Putnam's Monthly Magazine of AmericanLiterature, Science, and Art 1 (1853) 498-509: "We havebeen so long accustomed to hear ourselves denounced bythe English press, as an all-grasping, unprincipled, and,annexing' race, wandering over the face of the earth for nopurpose but that of plunder or traffic; that it is quiterefreshingto encounter a story told by an English gentlemanof what he has seen done by Americans, who, in a holycause, have entered upon, and successfully labored in, afield to which English philanthropy in the East has not evenfound its way. Let us hear what Mr. Layard has to say ofour American missions in the East" (503); Anon., "Reviewof A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains (Putnamedition)", Methodist Quarterly Review 31 No. 4 (1849)577-94; R. Davidson, "Review of W. Osburn, AncientEgypt, Her Testimonyto the Truthof the Bible;F. L. Hawks,The Monumentsof Egypt; E. W. Hengstenberg, Egypt andthe Banksof Moses; A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains",The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review 22 No. 2(1850) 260-79; C. Collins, "Review of A. H. Layard,Discoveries Among the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon(Harper & Brothers edition)", Methodist Quarterly Review

36 No. 1 (1854) 113-31; A. B. Chapin, "Review of A. H.Layard, Nineveh and its Remains (Putnam edition)", TheChurch Review and Ecclesiastical Register 2 No. 2 (1849)245-63; Anon., "Austen Henry Layard",National Magazine:Devoted to Literature,Art, and Religion8 (1856) 556-60.37Anon., "Dr. Layard and Nineveh", Littell's Living Age28 No. 358 (1851) 603-6; Anon., "Review of A. H. Layard,Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon", EclecticMagazine 29 (1853) 341-59 (from the English Review):"Should the sovereign grant him armorialbearingsto rewardhis [Layard's] great achievements, we would suggest, on ashield sable the palace of Sennacherib argent; supporters, awinged lion and a winged bull, both proper; motto, LitorisAssyrii Viator" (359).38Anon., "Review of A. H. Layard, Nineveh and itsRemains (Putnam edition)", Methodist Quarterly Review 31No. 4 (1849) 577-94; Anon., "Review of A. H. Layard,Discoveries Among the Ruins of Ninevehand Babylon (G. P.Putnam edition)", The Christian Examiner and ReligiousMiscellany 54 (1853) 503-4; Anon., "Review of A. H.Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon",Dublin University Magazine 41 (1849) 740-57; Anon.,"Review of A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains(Putnamedition)", Methodist Quarterly Review 31 No. 4 (1849)577-94; George Crolly, "Review of A. H. Layard,Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon", DublinReview 35 (1853) 93-138.39Anon., "A Day in Nineveh", The National Magazine:Devoted to Literature, Art, and Religion 2 (1853) 247-52.40Bela Bates Edwards, "Layard's Nineveh", BibliothecaSacra 6 No. 24 (1849) 792.41 Austen Henry Layard, Nineveh and its Remains: Withan Account of a Visit to the Chaldaean Christians ofKurdistan, and the Yezidis, or Devil- Worshippers:and anInquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians(New York: George P. Putnam, 1852) iii.


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252 STEVENW. HOLLOWAY

ITS REMAIN:.-WITOI AN ACCOUNT OF A V14IT TO THE CHALDAN

CIIRISTIANS OF K1TRDIS-r*N,AND THS YEZID18.-OR DEVIL-WORSI1PPERS; AND AN INQUIYINT'O THE MANNERS AND ARITS OF

TIIE ANCIENT ABSYRINS

BY AUSTEN1ENRYLAYAIW,ESQ.,D.G.L.

N,W EDITION, WITHO4 ANrIDGXNTTWO VOLUMES. COMPLETE IS4 OnU.

NEW-YORK:.CIEORGE"P. PUTNAM, l5a BROA

Fig. 3 Layard, ineveh ndits Remains Putnamdition,1852), itle-page.Sunday-Schoolliterature,Bible histories, biblical antiquitieshandbooks, Bible dictionaries,academicessays and biblicalcommentarieswould hasten the burdenof the latest news fromNineveh into readyhands.Academicessaysin Americanperiodicaliteraturebeganto assimilate he initialAssyriologicalpublicationswithin a matter of months. In "Translationof the Prophecyof Nahum withNotes", 1848,B. B. Edwardsconnectedthe chariots of doomedNinevehin Nahum with reliefdepictionsof chariotspublished rom the FrenchKhorsabadexcavations.4In the wordsof thereviewerwriting or The Biblical Repertoryand Princeton Review, "The numerous llustrations fcircumstantial llusionsin the propheticwritings,respecting he magnificenceof the Assyrianapparel, the luxury of their manners, their mode of waging war, their extensive commerce, theirsuspending the shields of the warriors on wall and ships (Ezek 27: 11); all these things tend tocorroborate he authorityand credibilityof the Holy Scriptures".3 The legendary rueltyof theAssyrians is fully borne out by the grisly palace-relief llustrationsof human executions,impalements,and flayings.The story in Amos 5: 25-7 of the worshipof the gods SakkutandKaiwan is vindicated,somehow,by images of idols carriedon litters by Assyriansoldiers.4Layardand most of his reviewersacceptedhis correlationbetweenthe spuriousetymologyofNisroch, "6eagle", irst proposed by Gesenius,the image of the bird-headedgenius frequentlydepicted on the Assyrian palace reliefs, and the god Nisroch in whose temple Sennacherib wasslain, 2 Kings 19: 37. While articles and biblicalcommentariesof the 1860s dealt mostly with"king and country""istorical ssues, scholarship n the 1870s would introduce the Americanreading public to the intractablechronologicalproblems n correlatingcertainOld Testamentreignsand events with the so-calledAssyrianeponymcanons. The most vexingconundrumof

42 Bela Bates Edwards, "Translation of the Prophecy ofNahum with Notes", Bibliotheca Sacra 5 No. 19 (1848)551-76.43R. Davidson, "Review of W. Osburn, AncientEgypt,HerTestimony to the Truthof the Bible; F. L. Hawks, The Monu-

ments of Egypt; E. W. Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Banksof Moses; A. H. Layard, Nineveh and its Remains", TheBiblical Repertoryand PrincetonReview22 No. 2 (1850) 278.44J. R. Beard, "Review of A. H. Layard, Nineveh and itsRemains",British QuarterlyReview 9 (1849) 440-1.


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NINEVEH SAILSFOR THE NEW WORLD 253ufos:v.rx ggs -"'.zrv. ?S"TPJ? *t4

dats l"'" . AItLt raEwrj ni art:6j;&l tower, bt I S.Fks(tL,; kbd,1.tAMt;ty, it# %.re, -U.-rr^.I :t, ;rnu kii-u|Ai rrl e- lJ9 r}ll}s l 4 frrof d nl.,ry eJiw'. nz: w1 {9rrt rsr.J *r. ir;t, ..4l h rle> f r utit Ex Ml1:sb ^e ra Yserr.1w.,. I.A,Js. It wasrutoY

F. igt Kitt, Dn lye Bretrl Iu r i , 8 , :. 84tt,healAa t ftre of.tL> Kin Pul (the s tntityedo ttlt .eut to a inAkkadian

languageource.' O'1'nl by th early ,180s would mos Eng:;lish-spteakncholas com e o acpthe ~ {.qato that bibiaKingr Pulasttr th sam iniida aste citua ndcnefrettTiglath-pileseri'5~~~~~~~~~~~~mpll.]thiAmerican~~~


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1 1. P L '. 1 *#

__

)v^# -_ _s t~~- -

Fig.5 Barrows,SacredGeography,ndAntiquities, 875,312-13.

A,,,rian Kim, ,,mi Cup,-h. a. er(D)iolnhe .l ssyrian labletl.) (Orienal s sit am Meaml.

Fig.6 Bissell,BiblicalAntiquities, 888,81, 85.cherubim, Kitto reproduces drawings of a medley of Egyptian, Greek and Assyrian wingedmonsters, including the oft-republished drawing of the human-headed lion colossus.5"The "trickle-down" effect into mainstream Sunday School literature would be pronounced by the 1870s andcommonplace by the 1880s.52American authors and publishers of biblical antiquities handbooks quickly incorporatedillustrations from Egyptian and Assyrian realia as they became available, thus adding to thescriptural exposition an aura of visual historical verisimilitude. Elijah Porter Barrows' SacredGeography,and Antiquities. With Maps and Illustrations presents a line-drawing of SennacheribBiography, Geography,Antiquities, and Theology, EspeciallyDesigned for the Family Circle (New York: Robert Carterand Brothers, 1871) 1: 84-5.

51 Kitto, Daily Bible Illustrations, 1: 87-93.52See, for example, Francis Nathan Peloubet, ed., SelectNotes on the InternationalSabbath School Lessons for 1878.Explanatory, Illustrative,and Practical. With Four Maps, aChronological Chart, and Table of the Signification andPronunciationof Proper Names (Boston: Henry Hoyt, 1878)59-65, the lesson for March 17, 1878, "Hezekiah and theAssyrians", which provides a mostly accurate etymology ofSennacherib's name, details about his palace in Nineveh,

and quotations from his annals. An accurate sketch of thegeography of the Assyrian heartland follows, together witha succinct resume of modern excavations, and an accountof Sennacherib's siege of Lachish. The sophisticated toneof this line-by-line commentary, harmonizing as it doesexcavations, Assyrian texts, and reconstructedbiblicalhistory,is indistinguishable rom a host of twentieth-centuryhistorico-critical commentaries, such as the Anchor Bible volume on2 Kings, Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor, II Kings:A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary(Anchor Bible Vol. 11; Doubleday & Company, 1988).


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NINEVEHSAILS FOR THE NEW WORLD 255

Fig. 7 Yaggy and Haines, Museum f Antiquity, 882, 435.enthronedreceiving he submissionof Lachish, ncongruously roupedwitha drawingof the siteof Khorsabad Fig. 5).5 EdwinBissell'sBiblicalAntiquitiesmadesubstantialuse throughoutofLayard/Murray's"Assyrian" ine-drawings,with an admixture of stock "Oriental" ableauxsufficient o satisfy the most indiscriminate alate (Fig. 6).54 As time went on and middle-classincomespermitted he acquisitionof parlour ibraries,publishers atered to growing Americantastes for time-travelogueshroughclassicaland biblicalcivilizations.Note the wonderfulcom-positedrawing n Museum f Antiquity,aid out like a Romantrophyor a curiositycabinet,withimagesthat had been reproduced o often that they could be jumbledtogether with completeassuranceof "brand dentification"Fig. 7).55In parting, allow me to offer some reflectionson the triumphof Assyriain America.Withintwo decadesof the sensationalpublicationsby Layardand thecreationof the Assyrianexhibit nthe BritishMuseum,the publishersof English-language unday-School nd technicalexpositoryliterature,devotionalworks,biblicalantiquitieshandbooks, llustratedBible historiesand diction-ariesexploited llustrationsbased on Layard's ketchesand the IllustratedLondonNewsin orderto ensure biblicalfidelity and to boost sales. With the battle between the monumentsandbiblicalhigher riticism scalatingndecibels, ecognizablemagesof Assyrianbas-reliefs,culpture,architecture ndKleinplastikameto act likecertificates f authenticity uaranteeinghehistorical"slant" of the contents (Fig. 8). Was their inclusion a nod to historical ntegrity,or a cleverexercise n the cashvalue of ancientAssyria? t wasboth, little differentn kind than the attractivecoversand reproductionsportedby the StateArchives f Assyriavolumestoday.There was, however,a notabledifferencebetween he visualmonopoly of Assyrianantiquitiesin EnglandversusAmerica: he physicalaccessibility f the BritishMuseum.For the British, heconquestof ancientAssyriaand the ensconcement f her riches n the BritishMuseum, ike theacquisitionof theElgin Marblesand themummiesof PharaonicEgypt,symbolized hat the powerof the BritishIslesdominated he globe, pullingall the peripheriesnto the emblematicnationaltrophy-houseof the BritishMuseum.America would never gain ancient Near Easternspoilsthroughthe GreatGame,at leastnot in the Victorianera,and American ollectionsof Assyrianreliefslabs, housed n easternuniversities ndseminarieshrough he effortsof Americanmission-aries in the 1850s,were accessibleonly to the elite few. Unlike England,there would be nowidespread orm of "Assyromania"n antebellumAmerica,no NinevehCourt at an American

3 ElijahPorterBarrows,SacredGeography, ndAntiquities.With Maps and Illustrations (New York: American TractSociety, 1875) 312-13.Edwin Cone Bissell, Biblical Antiquities: A Hand-Bookfor Use in Seminaries, Sabbath-Schools, Families and by AllStudentsof the Bible(Green Fund Book Vol. 5; Philadelphia:

American Sunday-School Union, 1888), passim." L. W. Yaggy and T. L. Haines, Museum of Antiquity.A Descriptionof AncientLife: TheEmployments,Amusements,Customs, and Habits, the Cities, Palaces, Monuments andTombs, the Literature and Fine Arts of 3,000 Years Ago(Kansas City: Wever & Company, 1882) 435.


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NINE\ :II ANl ITS REMAINS.. .,r!DIE. ) b . Y I F S 1 1 0W IM 1h t1 W AMItT TIIF

BYAUSTVS LAHARD.S4

ST lE It A ' P1 KE RBY p ritvxcll 111KAPr .-

TIIE IISTORYOF ,1FECE ON'TINr'.

Fig. 8 Layard,Nineveh nd ts Remains Putnamedition,1852), advertising ack-matterorJohnMurraypublications.

A REVERIEAT THE CRYSTALALACE.Fig.9 PunchVol. 26, 17 June1854,250-1.

Crystal Palace (Fig. 9), and no parodies of British Museum objects in an American equivalent ofPunch magazine.56 American popular culture made no such appropriation, because Americannational identity was not bound up with the decipherment of Akkadian and the acquisition ofAssyrian antiquities, unlike one John Bull.

56For examplesof early British"Assyromania"n theguise of porcelain, ewellery,and prints,see the catalogueof the superbexhibitionmounted n the BritishMuseumduring he 49thRAI, HenriettaMcCallandJonathanTubb,I Am the Bull of Nineveh: Victorian Design in the AssyrianStyle (London:PDC Publishers privatelyprinted),2003),and Bohrer, Orientalismand Visual Culture, 174-8.

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