صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

KHORSABAD.-CONSTRUCTION.-SECTION OF WALL.

243

length, the extreme width of the largest not exceeding thirtythree feet. That the forests of the mountainous regions north of Nineveh would furnish an abundance of large timber, even of cedar, the approved wood for the purpose,' there can be no question; but even if the width of the chambers had exceeded the ordinary length of beams, it does not seem to us to present any objection, for we cannot admit that a people so conversant with the working of stone and of metals, could be ignorant of some of the most simple principles of carpentry-a science which must of necessity have preceded the ornamental arts. In the larger apartments we cannot have any difficulty in adopting a wooden column, for Strabo tells us that the Babylonians supported the roofs of their houses by pillars of wood. The beams having been placed upon the dwarf walls, the rafters were next laid over them in the contrary direction, and upon these again the planks of cedar, which, as well as the beams, we should ornament with vermilion, still a common and fashionable combination with green, for the ornamentation of the ceilings in the best chambers of the houses in Cairo. Above the planks there was probably a course of burnt bricks, cemented with bitumen, and then a layer of clay and earth, in the way that the roofs of houses in Syria are now made, for Botta found among the rubbish in the interior of some of the chambers, the stone rollers called mahadalet, resembling our garden rollers, and like those used to this day to roll and harden the roofs of the Syrian houses after the winter rains. This implement being always kept on the roof then as now, it is supposed fell into the chamber with the rafters at the time of the conflagration, which reduced the palace to a ruinous heap.

2

The top of the solid walls, between the dwarf piers, afforded ample space for shady passages and sleeping apartments during the hot months of the year, and at the same time gave every facility for regulating the shutters and other obvious contrivances for excluding the rays of the sun, and for preventing the snow or rain from drifting into the chambers below. No staircases, or means of gaining the upper apartments, have been discovered; but as so much of the building had disappeared before Botta began his investigations, we are not suprised at 2 Jer xxii. 14.

11 Kings, vi. 9, 10; vii. 2, 3.

244

KHORSABAD.-RINGS TO SECURE HANGINGS.

the absence of all indication of those important parts of the edifice, especially as we know from the Egyptian temples, and from the Sacred text, that the staircase up to the roof was frequently contained in the thickness of the wall.'

As regard the courts, it is not improbable that wooden columns were used, particularly in this court and in the court of the king's house, to support an awning which was held down and fastened to certain marble rings inserted in the pavement, and to the ring on the backs of the bronze lions. (See fig. 240, sec. v.) We have an example of this mode of protecting a large assembly from the effects of the sun in southern latitudes, in the description of the feast given by king Ahasuerus, "both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace. Where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble."

We have repeatedly, in the course of our progress through the chambers, had occasion to mention the door which closed some of the more important openings; we are, however, quite in ignorance as to the contrivance for the upper pivots of these doors, whether they were inserted into a slab which stretched across the opening from jamb to jamb, or whether certain copper rings, which we possess in our national collection, were not fixed into the walls above the slabs, for the purpose of receiving the pivots.

By reference to the detailed plan, it will be evident that the proportion of the voids to the solid of the walls is a remarkable feature, in which the Assyrian structures differ from all other ancient remains. Another leading characteristic of this palace of Khorsabad is the almost scrupulous symmetry of the plan, the chief openings being generally opposite to each other, those leading from the King's Court (N) to the Inner Court (L) forming a continuous line of communication; and, lastly, it will be found that the chambers are invariably rectangular.

Although in the foregoing description we have assumed that the roof of the Khorsabad palace was flat, we have evidence in the illustrations upon the walls that pitched roofs were, likewise, used in Assyrian buildings. In fig. 68, we have given a representation of a structure which we term a sacred edifice, from the symbols and vessels in front, and the shields 1 Kings, vi. 8. 2 Esther, i. 5, 6.

KHORSABAD.-FERGUSSON'S RESTORATIONS.

245

suspended from the walls. This building is raised upon a platform resembling that of the palace we are describing; and the roof is pitched, the pediment or gable-end being presented to the spectator. The same illustration affords examples of flat roofs and of numerous windows.

It will be seen that our restoration of the roof is in many respects analogous to ancient Egyptian temples, and to modern modes of construction in the East. It nearly agrees with Mr. Fergusson's ingenious restoration of the palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis. Mr. Fergusson has adopted dwarf columns where we introduce walls; and he lights the chambers beneath through the spaces between the columns, instead of through windows or perforations in the dwarf wall. Mr. Fergusson differs with us in that he supports the roof of the chambers by double lines of columns, and sustains his hypothesis by collateral evidence derived from the many existing buildings in India, particularly the mosque of Amedabad, and finally in the columns existing at Persepolis. Our space, however, does not admit of a full exposition of his views; but a perusal of the book itself will amply repay the reader.

We will conclude this chapter by a brief statement of M. Botta's opinion concerning the destruction of the palace of Khorsabad. "The want of consistence in the material employed in building the walls of the palace of Khorsabad," says M. Botta, "rendered them insufficient to withstand the strain of an arch;2 they were, nevertheless, able, through their great thickness, to support any amount of vertical pressure." There is nothing, then, in the manner in which the supports are constructed which is compatible with any kind of roof, except with one of wood, for which it is particularly suited. The proofs obtained in the interior of the chambers tend to show that this was actually the system resorted to at Khorsabad. It is incontestable that, during the excavations, a considerable quantity of charcoal, and even pieces of wood, either half burnt or in a perfect state of preservation, were found in many places. The lining of the chambers also bears certain marks of the action of fire. All these things can be explained

1 Fergusson's "Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored."

2 This has been refuted by the discovery of arched ceilings to some of the chambers that have lately been uncovered.

246

KHORSABAD.-DESTRUCTION OF THE PALACE.

only by supposing the fall of a burning roof, which calcined. the slabs of gypsum and converted them into dust. It would. be absurd to imagine that the burning of a small quantity of furniture could have left on the walls marks like those which are to be seen through all the chambers, with the exception of one, which was only an open passage. It must have been a violent and prolonged fire to be able to calcine not only a few places, but every part of these slabs, which were ten feet high and several inches thick. So complete a decomposition can be attributed but to intense heat, such as would be occasioned by the fall of a burning roof. When Botta began his researches in Khorsabad, he remarked that the inscriptions engraved on the pavement before some of the doors were incrusted with a hard copper-coloured cement, which filled the characters, and had turned the surface of the stone green. He now states that he had not at that time made sufficient observations to enable him to understand what he saw. In giving an account of his discoveries to M. Mohl, he said that these inscriptions had been incrusted with copper, and that the oxidation of this metal had produced the effect he remarked. This, he admits, was an error, and subsequent observation has shown that the copper-coloured cement was but the result of the fusion of nails and bits of copper. He also found on the engraved flag-stones scoria and half-melted nails, so that there is no doubt that these appearances had been produced by the action of intense and long-sustained heat. He remembers, besides, at Khorsabad, that when he detached some bas-reliefs from the earthy substance which covered them, in order to copy the inscriptions that were behind, he found there coals and cinders, which could have entered only by the top, between the wall and the back of the bas-reliefs. This can be easily understood to have been caused by the burning of the roof, but is inexplicable in any other manner.

What tends most positively to prove that the traces of fire must be attributed to the burning of a wooden roof is, that these traces are perceptible only in the interior of the building. The gypsum also that covers the walls inside is completely calcined, while the outside of the building is nearly everywhere untouched. But wherever the fronting appears to have at all suffered from fire, it is at the bottom: thus giving reason to suppose that the damage has been done by some

KHORSABAD.-DESTRUCTION OF THE PALACE.

247

burning matter falling outside. In fact, not a single bas-relief in a state to be removed was found in any of the chambers: they were all pulverised. Nearly all those of the outside might, on the contrary, have been detached and sent to France; for though a few were broken, yet the stone on which they were sculptured was in a state of good preservation. Is not this the effect that would be produced on an edifice by the falling in of a burning roof, and can this circumstance be otherwise explained?

M. Flandin, the artist who assisted M. Botta in his researches, was of opinion that the quantity of coals and cinders did not appear so large as might be expected to remain after the burning of a roof as immense as that of Khorsabad. He also considered that the half-burnt beams which have been found in the chambers belonged to the doors near which they were generally discovered. This assertion, however, M. Botta thinks is far from being supported. Before M. Flandin's arrival, M. Botta states that he had found coals, cinders, and the remains of burnt joists; and in a letter published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Paris, he had particularly noticed this circumstance, as affording proof that the state in which the palace was found had been occasioned by the burning of the roof. The place in which burnt joists were first discovered was in the centre of one of the chambers, as far from any of the doors as it was possible to be. The wood found there could not have belonged to the doors. With respect to the quantity, it will be easily seen that, after a fire, it will be more or less great according to circumstances that it is now impossible to account for. The relative rareness of these remains has doubtless been caused by the quality and dryness of the wood, by the influence of combustion-or the greater or less length of time during which the floor of the chambers was exposed to the action of the elements before the ace was ingulfed. It is certain that the whole interior of the chambers is calcined, while the outside walls are untouched. It is impossible to attribute this effect to any other cause but the burning of a wooden roof; and this supposition is corroborated by indications discovered during the excavations. The supposition of an arched roof, on the contrary, is on the whole incompatible with the nature of the materials employed in the construction of the walls. M. Botta therefore concludes that

« السابقةمتابعة »