Milton C. Fisher<\/b><\/p>\n
What is so remarkable about Austen Henry Layard? Is it (a} He discovered so much so quickly? (b) He did so at an early age without prior schooling or experience? (c) He worked \u201con a shoestring,\u201d without adequate government or institutional support? (d) He dropped archaeology abruptly for a political and diplomatic career, or (e) All of the above? The answer is E!<\/p>\n
Henry Layard was, above all, aggressive and adventuresome. So courageously impetuous was he most would call him foolhardy. But because he learned by doing,<\/i> his activities got biblical archaeology off to a fast start. Caution and refinements had to be introduced to get the most out of artifacts recovered; but it was Layard, more than anyone else, who captured the attention and admiration of the (British) public, thus popularizing the challenge of Near Eastern archaeology.<\/p>\n
The Illustrated London News<\/i> (Nov 3, 1855) said, \u201cIn 1853 the Assyrian Excavation Fund was established in London for the purpose of prosecuting still further the researches which have conferred such well-deserved honour and fame upon Mr. Layard.\u201d By this date, Layard had completed two digs and won a seat in parliament. Widely travelled as he was while still young [his productive days as an excavator lasted only from age 28 to 34!], he twice served as Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, as well as ambassador without portfolio, and political observer in the Crimean War and in India. A lover of art and of intriguing surroundings, he retired in Venice, to which he had been attracted on his first trek to the Near East. He died in London at the age of 77.<\/p>\n
The rapid pace of Layard\u2019s career was achieved by a seemingly unconventional route, due to his insatiable curiosity and indefati-<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 1:4 (Autumn 1988) p. 3<\/p>\n
gable energy. But his parents started it all, one could say, by their own wandering ways. They moved about in civil service and were too poor to provide Henry a college education. Yet he grew up multilingual, being born in Paris and educated in Italy, France, Switzerland, and England. He also travelled Europe on his own, as far as Finland and Russia.<\/p>\n
On his first trip farther east, adventures like exploring Jordan\u2019s Petra \u2014 where he was threatened by local tribesmen, then attacked and robbed in the mountains of Moab \u2014 only whetted his appetite for excavation. He was also further equipped to anticipate and forestall or handle trouble when working in Mesopotamia.<\/p>\n
Friendship with Paul Botta, French vice-consul at Iraqian Mosul (near ancient Nineveh) who pioneered some excavations himself, confirmed Layard\u2019s determination to dig. Downstream by raft, ancient Nimrud was where Layard dug first – on meager funds, but with astonishing success. In November of 1845, within a few hours on the first day, his workmen had cleared a 25 foot chamber with an inscribed marble floor and containing fascinating carved ivory figures: a king, crouching sphinxes, gorgeous flowers.<\/p>\n
Layard unearthed numerous monumental finds, including the huge human-headed winged bulls which had guarded the palace of Assumasirpal II – each over ten tons[ He also found the Black Obelisk of his son, Shalmaneser III (859\u2013824 BC), containing the first discovered mention of an Israelite monarch (perhaps even his portrait), King Jehu. This Shalmaneser stele was found at Kuyunjik (ancient Nineveh), where Botta first dug without satisfaction. The more aggressive Layard turned up much that others had missed, including thousands of cuneiform tablets and a series of magnificent bas-reliefs portraying Sennacherib\u2019s siege of Judaean Lachish.<\/p>\n
Babylon itself was the third site tackled by Henry Layard in those brief years of activity. In all, he was responsible for acquiring the greater part of the impressive collection of Assyrian sculptures now in the British Museum. The difficulties and mishaps (unfortunate damage and losses) involved in transporting antiquities and monuments in those early days would make a story all in itself.<\/p>\n
Layard was neither scholar nor scientist. Yet the successes of this remarkable Englishman have earned him a position in the forefront of the history of archaeology in Bible lands. <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 1:4 (Autumn 1988) p. 4<\/p>\n
The Stones Cry Out<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Milton C. Fisher What is so remarkable about Austen Henry Layard? Is it (a} He discovered so much so quickly? (b) He did so at an early age without prior schooling or experience? (c) He worked \u201con a shoestring,\u201d without adequate government or institutional support? (d) He dropped archaeology abruptly for a political and diplomatic … Continue reading “SIR
\nAUSTEN HENRY LAYARD [1817-1894]”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}