ASSYRIAN EXPLORATIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1129, 19 July 1873, Page 6

ASSYRIAN EXPLORATIONS.

Mr George Smith, who is in charge of the exploring expedition which the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph have sent out to Assyria, telegraphs from Mosul, under date of April 26, as follows :—: —

I am happy to inform you that my researches up to the present time in Mesopotamia have been crowned with much good fortune, and that I have obtained results of real value and interest. I have examined many of the ancient remains and monuments, and the general face of the country from Koyunjik, on the river Tigris, down to Babylon on the Euphrates. Thence I have crossed into the marsh district of Hillah, and investigated the Birs Nimrbud. I have also been across the desert as far as Tell Ibrahim. In the course of these visits and of my excavations nearer Mosul, 1 have obtained upwards of 80 new inscriptions. One among them is from a very important stele of Merodach-Baladan, King of Babylon, son of Milihu, grandso'h of Kurigalzu, period 1300 B. c. Another notable inscription is that of Vulnirari, King of Assyria, recording a list of expeditions and triumphs achieved during the reigns of Assurabalid, Belnirari, Sul, and Yulnirari. This interesting record gives the particulars of the restoration of the causeway to the great temple of Assur, date 1320 b. o. I have also recovered part of the series of tablets containing most curious and ancient Babylonian legends, as well as syllabaries of great utility, a bilingual collection of proverbs, and some astrological and mythological tables. Among other discoveries, I may mention contemporaneous or historical memorials of Sargon, Esarhaddon, Assurbanipal, Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus, Cambyses, and Darius. I have, moreover, lighted upon some extremely curious tablets of the Parthianperiod, bearing umnistakeable dates, with many other more or less interesting relics, the particulars of which will be learned from the letters which I have despatched to you. I excavated at Nimroud for 17 days, and explored there the North-west Palace of Esarhaddon, the Temple of Nebo, and also some entirely untouched portions of the South-east palace. This latter is of greater extent and grander character than has been supposed. I found spacious halls and fine chambers, the walls of which were ornamented with bands of plain colours. Under the pavement of one of these halls I came upon six clay figures having the head of a lion joined to a human body. These figures have four wings, and each of them holds in the left hand the symbolical basket. One of my most recent discoveries is that of a perfectly new text of the annals of Tiglath-Pjleser, Jam at

present digging hard to obtain, if poa* sible, the remainder of this highly import' ant piece of history.