Nineveh and its Remains,

by LAYARD, Austen Henry

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Book Description

New York: George P. Putnam, 1849. First American edition. Two volumes. Octavo. 326 + 32 ads; 373 [1] pages. Illustrated with many plates and intertextual illustrations, folding plans. Large fold-out map in volume two present. Original green cloth ruled and stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt, front covers with large central gilt Assyrian monument design. Shallow chip to crown of volume two spine, light edgewear, some foxing to plates and pages, inner hinge split in gutter of volume one, else a fresh bright set in the original publisher's binding. Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894) was one of the leading British archaeologists of the nineteenth century. In late 1845, Layard began his expedition of the excavation at Nimrud. He discovered the Assyrian regal monuments and cuneiform inscriptions which he concluded were the visible remains of Nineveh, the great Assyrian capital. His book, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1853), correctly identifies Kuyunjik as the true Nineveh. The book is based on the most prominent results of LayardÕs second expedition. The emphasis of the book is not on Layard as protagonist but on the consequence and magnitude of the expedition and on his results. In April 1851, Layard vowed never to return to the Nineveh site, for unknown reasons. Layard presented his archaeological activities to readers in narrated forms lending a new depth to his readersÕ awareness of their collective past. His writing chronicles are comprised of the exhilarating discovery of a layer of civilization that predates biblical and classical ones. LayardÕs writings are described as travel writings because of the interrelation of past and present and the investigative direction of the narrative, which dominates the features of his writings about his expeditions and discoveries of the Nineveh. His narrative became a medium through which the ruins could tell their story. Ruins, for Layard, had their own personalities and voices. His words raise questions of cultural imperialism and epistemology central to modern critical debates. (Hoffstatter, Minnesota State University)

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