volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

28 Hilmi Pdshd's Excavations at Nabi Yilnis.
foundations of his house, discovered two colossal humanheaded
bulls, and two large slabs sculptured with figures
of a king fighting with lions. The British Vice-Consul
and Mr. Hodder, an artist who was sent to Nineveh by
the Trustees of the British Museum, were informed of
the discovery, but they did nothing to secure these
treasures, and the Turkish authorities seized them, and
they disappeared. Hilmi, the Wall Pasha of Mosul in
1851-52, was much more enlightened than any of his
predecessors, and took an intelligent interest in the history
of the country over which he was called to rule in
(what the Muslims call) the " Jahiliyah," or the " Era
of Ignorance," i.e., Pre-Islamic times. As soon as he
heard of the native's discovery at Nabi Yunis, he collected
a gang of workmen from among the prisoners in gaol,^
and in April, 1854, dug into the mound at a place close
by the Tomb of Jonah. He opened out several chambers,
and discovered two splendid bulls, each about sixteen
feet high, and a series of slabs covered with cuneiform
inscriptions, and a large number of bricks of Sennacherib
and Esarhaddon. But to have made a complete
success of the work Hilmi Pasha would have been
obliged to tunnel under the Tomb of Jonah, and when
the inhabitants of the vUlage saw this they raised such
an outcry that the excavations had to be abandoned.
Among the inscriptions discovered by Hilmi Pasha was
one which has been called the "Constantinople Inscription,"
and the "Memorial Tablet," and the " Nebbi
Yunis Inscription " of Sennacherib. This important
monument bears an inscription (in two columns, which
contain fifty and forty-four lines respectively), giving an
account of the great wars of this king, and a description
of the "Bit KutaUi," or "Arsenal," which he built at
Nabi Yunis.^ On the authority of Rawlinson, people
have always believed it to be at Constantinople, but I
^ Jones, in Jnl. Roy. As. Soc, vol. xv, p. 327.
* The text is published by Rawlinson, Cuneiform Inscriptions, vol. i,
pis. 43, 44. I gave a rendering of the greater part of it in Records of
the Past, vol. xi, p. 45 ff. (Old Series).