Assyrian Discoveries: An Account of Explorations and Discoveries on the Site of Nineveh during 1873 and 1874

Following the excavation of Assyrian palaces in the mid-nineteenth century, ancient Mesopotamian imagery began to be used in European decorative arts, including jewelry and ceramics. Publicity in the form of news coverage and popular books around the excavations, removal of many sculptures from sites in northern Iraq to England and France, and public spectacles such as the reconstructed ‘Nineveh Court’ in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, London, fostered a fascination with Assyria and Assyrian art among the Victorian public.

As a young man George Smith, while working as a banknote engraver in London, spent his lunch hours at the British Museum studying cuneiform tablets. He taught himself to read Akkadian, and his interest and talent came to the attention of Samuel Birch, who increasingly involved him in the museum’s work. Smith made a series of important discoveries, but by far the most famous was his translation in 1872 of what is now known to be the 11th tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh. This part of the epic contains an account of a great flood created by the gods that destroyed humanity and which only one family survived. The account was so close to that of the biblical great flood of Genesis that it was clear the two texts were closely related.

The news of a Babylonian account of the flood became a Victorian popular sensation. Following the discovery, Smith was funded by the Daily Telegraph to travel to Iraq and to search for more fragments of the tablet and narrative. He was successful, and this volume recounts that trip. Sadly, his next expedition in 1876 resulted in his illness and death at the young age of 36.