volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

8o MSsul Flooded.
elsewhere. From every point of view it seemed unlikely
that Shalmaneser would have set up such a wonderful
monument as the " Gates "in an out-of-the-way place
like Tall Balawat, for the natural place for this unrivalled
example of bronze work was his palace or some
great temple. We know now that the " little gates "
were made by Ashur-nasir-pal, the father of the
Shalmaneser who set up the " great gates," and that
they had a place in his palace, which as already said
would be the natural place for such a work. But the
" little gates " were brought home by Mr. H. Rassam,
who said they were found with the " great gates," and
if this be so both sets of gates were unearthed in the
ruins of a palace, in fact in the ruins of Ashur-nasirpal's
palacfe. If the two sets of gates were found at
Tall Balawat there must have been a palace at this
place, 1 but this is impossible, for there is no room in
the mound for a temple still less for a temple and a
palace, however small. An explanation of the difficulty
is hard to find, but it seems very probable that the
natives deceived Mr. H. Rassam and did not tell him
where they found the plates which were sent to Paris.
Mr. H. Rassam may have obtained from Tall Balawat the
plates and the coffer, etc., which he sent home, but
if he did the natives must have taken them there.
Personally I believe that both sets of " gates " and the
coffer, etc., were found in some part of the ill-defined
district now called Nimrud.
The spell of fine dry weather which we enjoyed was
short, and it became warm and rainy. In a very few
days we saw the effects of this change on the river, which
began to rise rapidly. In a couple of days all the land
by the Tigris was flooded, and the market-gardeners
began to cry out that they would be ruined. For
another two days it seemed as though the flood were
subsiding, and then suddenly one afternoon the waters
^ See the Preface in L. W. King, Bronze Reliefs from the Gates of
Shalmaneser, London, 1915.
^ Mr. H. Rassam's own account of the finding of the Gates is given
in Trans. Soc. Bihl. Arch., vol. vii., p. 44 ff.