Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon

First published in 1853, this is Austen Henry Layard's narrative of his second campaign of excavation in Ottoman Mesopotamia. He describes work at Nineveh, Nimrud, and Babylon: the opening of palaces, the finding of sculptures, cuneiform tablets, and the remains of libraries, and the labour of moving heavy slabs. The book also covers journeys among Kurdish and Arab communities, diplomacy with local officials, and observations on the contemporary country along the Tigris. It is a field memoir of archaeology written before the sites were museum exhibits, combining excavation reports with travel. The voice is that of the digger and the envoy, not of a later synthesising historian.

Bound in blue cloth, cover blocked in black, off-white and maroon with an image. Red slipcase.