Nineveh and Babylon - a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, and 1851 (1882) (14764163341)

Identifier: ninevehbabylonna00laya (find matches)
Title: Nineveh and Babylon : a narrative of a second expedition to Assyria during the years 1849, 1850, & 1851
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Layard, Austen Henry, Sir, 1817-1894
Subjects: Nineveh (Extinct city) Babylon (Extinct city) Middle East -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : J. Murray
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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rncoasts of Arabia, and directly or indirectly from the Indianpeninsula. We learn from the Kouyunjik inscriptions, thatthe people inhabiting the country at the mouths of the unitedwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates possessed vessels inwhich, when defeated by the Assyrians, they took refuge on * L. V. c. 52 and 53. + Heeren, with his usual critical skill, has investigated the subject ir.his essay on the commerce of the Babylonians, in the 2d vol. of his Historical Researches. 302 NINEVEH AND BABYLON. (Chap. the sea. The prophet Isaiah also alludes to the ships ofthe Chaldseans.* Timber for ship-building could have beenfloated with ease from the mountains of Armenia to the very-quays of Babylon, or to her ports at the head of the PersianGulf. We ha\e seen that Sennacherib sent down the Tigristhe materials for the construction of the vessels required inthe siege of the cities of southern Chaldaea, and that he em-ployed Phoenician mariners to build and navigate them. /^^^^^^i^ir^^^^irT^^-
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Terracotta Talilet from Babylon, representing a Dog. But although a coasting trade might have existed alongthe shores of the Persian Gulf and of the ocean as far asIndia, yet a very considerable trade was also carried on byland with the same country through Media, Hyrcania, and Chaj). 14- XII.) ENGRAVED CYLINDERS. 303 the centre of Asia. It was by this road that gold andvarious precious stones were probably supplied to Babylonand Nineveh. A race of dogs too. much prized by the Babylonians, wasbrought from India. A satrap of Babylon is declared tohave devoted the revenues of four cities * to the support ofa number of these animals. On a small terracotta tablet inthe British Museum, from Colonel Rawlinsons collection,obtained, I believe, at Baghdad, but probably found in someancient ruin in the neighbourhood, is the figure of a manleading a large and powerful dog, which has been identifiedwith a species still existing in Thibet. Tin, cedar-wood, and various articles were brought fromPho