Ancient History - Sir Austen Henry Layard
Sir Austen Henry Layard was a famous archaeologist, he was best known as ‘the excavator of Nimrud’. He was born on the 5th of March 1817 and later died on the 5th of July 1894. In 1839 he left he's law office job and became increasingly interested in locating and unearthing the great cities or the biblical renown. In 1842 the British ambassador at Istanbul, Sir Stratford Canning, employed him for unofficial diplomatic missions. Once he became more interested in the biblical renown, he decided he was going to unearth something spectacular. In 1845 mistaking nimrud, site of the Assyrian capital of Calah, for Nineveh he decided to first excavate there from 1845-51. 1His excavations included palaces of the 9th and 7th century; Ashurnasirpal and Shalmaneser II, 9th century BC sculptures, the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III and several pairs of human-headed winged lions and bulls. He shipped the vast stone statues back to his patriots at the British museum, were he later became a trustee. 2 In 1849 Sir Layard published Monuments of Nineveh still believing he had discovered the famous city. In the book it quoted “the world of bible began to be a real place, represented by real buildings and remains.”3 The excavation methods in the mid 1800s were still very simple and not yet developed. Though systematic finds were growing, although the emphases was still on retrieving objects and artifacts from the prominent sites. 4 In the 1800s the excavation was done mainly by hand or not very technological equipment, they didn't think of destroying its original place or environment, they felt that it was more important getting the artifacts out to look at and transport to a museum for more people to see. Now in the 2000s we can use more technological advanced equipment and plan things more efficiently, we use grids and record everything we see find or do; using anything from cameras to writing in a dairy. During Sir Layard's investigation...