Leonard William King

“ Botta, however, was the first to undertake systematic excavations at Kuyunjik. During three months in 1842 he opened trenches in the mound, but as he did not meet with encouraging results he transferred his operations to Khorsabad, the site of Dûr Sharrukin, the city of Sargon II. The fine sculptures which he there dug up led him to form the erroneous belief that Khorsabad, and not Kuyunjik, was the site of Nineveh, and Layard fell into a similar error when he opened the mound at Nimrûd and wrongly identified it with Nineveh. ”

“ Layard made a greater reputation as an excavator than as a politician or a diplomatist, but he was without the true archaeologist's feeling — a fact which is sufficiently proved by 'his presenting to his friends neatly cut tablets containing fragments of cuneiform inscriptions, which, of course, left serious lacunæ in priceless historical documents' (Athenæum, 14 July 1894) . His best-known works are those that deal with his excavations. The excavations at Nimrûd were described in 'Nineveh and its Remains' (1849, 2 vols.) ”

“ Thereupon Layard received leave of absence from his post at Constantinople, and his official career came to an end. In May Mr. G. J. (now Viscount) Goschen was sent to Constantinople in his place as special ambassador and minister-plenipotentiary of Great Britain. In his later years Layard lived much in Italy, chiefly at Venice, where he was well known as a social figure and an authority on art, which had always been a subject of his close study. His interest in Italian art was very deep. ”