Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon; with Travels in Armenia, Kurdistan and the Desert: Being the Result of a Second Expedition Undertaken for the Trustees of the British Museum, 1853 - Austen H. Layard
This firsthand account by Austen Henry Layard details his landmark 1849–1851 excavations at Nineveh and Babylon for the British Museum. The narrative documents the physical clearance of Sennacherib’s palace at Kouyunjik, the discovery of the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, and Layard's travels through Armenia and Kurdistan. Written as a direct field log, the text focuses on the logistics of managing local excavation crews, campsite operations, and the technical challenges of uncovering and transporting massive antiquities under the Ottoman Empire.
The volume is heavily illustrated to document the findings for a Western audience. It contains large folding geographic maps, architectural site plans, full-page lithographic plates of the excavations, and dozens of precise woodcuts depicting recovered artifacts. These detailed illustrations accurately reproduce cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals, inscribed Babylonian bowls, and monumental wall reliefs, serving as a primary visual inventory of the material culture discovered during the expedition.
