volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

iS British Museum Excavations at Kuyilnjik.
bas-reliefs, with twenty-seven portals, formed by colossal
winged bulls and lion-sphinxes, were uncovered in that
part alone of the building explored during my researches.
The greatest length of the excavation was about 720 feet,
the greatest breadth about 600 feet."^
During the excavations which Layard made at
Kuyunjik and Nimrud in 1845-47, he was assisted by
H. Rassam, who was his honorary secretary and overseer
of works. During his Second Mission (1849-51)1!. Rassam
again acted in the same capacities, and when Layard was
absent, and travelling about the country in search of
adventures, the responsibility for conducting the excavations
devolved upon him solely. In 1851 Layard
abandoned the East, and Rawlinson took charge of the
excavations. On Layard's recommendation the Trustees
of the British Museum appointed H. Rassam to continue
the excavations under the general control of Rawlinson,
and at the end of 1852 he began work. Meanwhile,
Victor Place had been sent out to Mosul by the French
Government to renew excavations both at Kuyunjik and
at Khorsabad, for the French claimed Kuyunjik as French
property, because Botta was the first to excavate there,
notwithstanding the fact that the Sultan had given to
Stratford Canning a permit to dig in any part of Turkey
in Asia he pleased. When Rawlinson took charge of the
work, Place obtained from him permission to dig at
Kuyunjik, and thus it fell out that when Rassam wanted
to dig there he found that his chief had practically made
it impossible. Rassam had always hankered to clear
out the northern comer of Kuyunjik which remained
untouched, and, using strategy, he began to work there
by night, and on the third night discovered the ruins of
the palace of Ashur-bani-pal, and the splendid set of
sculptures which form the " Lion-hunt. "^ In March,
1854, Rassam left Mosul for England, and as for private
reasons he refused to return to Kuyunjik, Rawlinson
recommended the Trustees of the British Museum to
^ Nineveh and Babylon, p. 589.
' See his narrative of the discovery in Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch.,
vol. vii, p. 41 ff.