The Monuments of Nineveh

by Austen Henry Layard

Publisher:

John Murray

, 1849

Overview

The Monuments of Nineveh provides intricate, hand-drawn sketches of sculptures, bas reliefs, and other findings from the Nineveh archaeological site. Austin Henry Layard’s detailed work offers a rare glimpse into early Mesopotamian culture. Each plate—drawn on the spot at the dig site—is accompanied by a description that details the subject’s physical characteristics and provides insights on the work’s meaning and significance.

• Provides intricate, hand-drawn sketches of sculptures, bas reliefs, and other findings from the Nineveh archaeological site
• Offers a rare glimpse into early Mesopotamian culture
• Details the meaning and significance of images throughout the work

Product Details

• Title: The Monuments of Nineveh
• Author: Austen Henry Layard
• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication Date: 1849
• Pages: 100
• Resource Type: Topical
• Topic: Bible Backgrounds

About Austen Henry Layard

Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894) was born in Paris, but he traveled often in his youth. He was educated in Italy, England, Switzerland, and France. After spending six years working for his uncle’s law firm, he left to travel and explore the Middle East. After his first successful excavations at Kuyunjik and Nimrud, Layard continued his archeological explorations at the ruins of Babylon and the mounds of southern Mesopotamia. (Many of the specimens that he found make up a large part of the British Museum’s collection of Assyrian antiquities.) Layard then returned to England, where he took up a life of politics, serving as under-secretary for foreign affairs and ambassador at Constantinople. Layard retired in Italy, where he continued to write about Italian art and penned the popular account of his earliest travels, Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia.