An Account of Explorations and Discoveries on the Site of Nineveh, During 1873 and 1874. Of the Department of Oriental Antiquities, British Museum. Scribner, Armstrong & Co. Very good hardcover, no dustjacket as issued. Tight binding, solid spine, strong hinges & joints, some foxing to pages & plates, unmarked text, in publisher’s green cloth boards with gilt titling and decoration to frontboard and spine. Illustrated, fold out map, index, 461 pages plus adverts. During 1873 and 1874, George Smith took part in excavations at the Assyrian site of Nineveh. In this book, he gives an account, with illustrations, of the excavations. George Smith (1840 – 1876) was a pioneering English Assyriologist who first discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest-known written works of literature. Nineveh, also known in early modern times as Kouyunjik, was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern bank of the Tigris River and was the capital and largest city of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as well as the largest city in the world for several decades. Today, it is a common name for the half of Mosul that lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and the country’s Nineveh Governorate takes its name from it. Large numbers of Assyrian sculptures and other artifacts have been excavated from the ruins of Nineveh, and are now located in museums around the world. IRAQ ANTIQUITIES NINEVAH ASSYRIAN DISCOVERIES 1875 1st ED ANCIENT MOSUL FLOOD HC.
