Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/371

342 Palace, and ended with the grandson of the builder of the Central Palace. On his return to England, hi 1847, Layard wrote an account of 'Nineveh and its Remains,' but the work did not appear till 1849. It was followed hi the same year by the 'Monuments of Xhieveh,' which contained drawings of the bas-reliefs and copies of the inscriptions.

Two great collections of Assyrian inscriptions were now in the hands of sc-holars, who found themselves face to face with the dilKcult prol)lems they suggested. In England the task was divided between Ilincks and RawHnson; but Mr. Norris, Dr. Birch, and Mr. Layard gave valualjle assistance in the publication of docu- ments. Mr. Xorris was farther en<^ai>'ed in the study of the Susian texts. In France the work was taken up by Botta, Lowenstern and De Saulcy. M. Oppert does not seem to have turned his attention to this branch of the sulgect till 1857, when for the first time France was worthily represented. Germany was silent, except for a few contril)Ution8 made by Grotefend in his de- clining years that added little to the general progress.

Nothing could at first be more l)ewildering than the immense number of si<z'ns. Grotefend counted only a hundred and tliirtv different characters in the third Persepolitan column. Mr. Fisher, in 1807, found that the East India House inscription contained two hundred and eighty-seven; ^ and Grotefend, in 1837, estimated that the whole of the liabvlonian inscriptions known to him contained about three liundred different signs.- But Botta encountered no less than six hundred and forty- two at Khorsaljad alone.*^ The unskilled eye will he disposed to agree with Lowenstern that at first sight

' Ilincks, Trans, li. I. Acad, \xi. 25.'5. - Xeue Ik'xtrinjc (IS^^T), p. 41. Menant, Les Lamjues perdues: Assyrie (Paris, 1880), p. 135.