Assyrian discoveries
an account of explorations and discoveries on the Site of Nineveh during 1873 and 1874
- ISBN: 9781108078993
- Editorial: Cambridge University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2014
- Lugar de la edición: Cambridge. Reino Unido
- Colección: Cambridge Library Collection
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 22 cm
- Nº Pág.: 498
- Idiomas: Inglés
The Assyriologist George Smith (1840-76) was trained originally as an engraver, but was enthralled by the discoveries of Layard and Rawlinson. He taught himself cuneiform script, and joined the British Museum as a 'repairer' or matcher of broken cuneiform tablets. Promotion followed, and after one of Smith's most significant discoveries among the material sent to the Museum - a Babylonian story of a great flood - he was sent to the Middle East, where he found more inscriptions which contained other parts of the epic tale of Gilgamesh. In this 1875 work, a bestseller in its day, Smith describes his expedition, the difficulties encountered, and the discoveries, including hundreds of inscriptions which increased knowledge of the Babylonian and Assyrian civilisations but also had a profound effect on traditional biblical studies. Smith died in Aleppo in 1876, having revolutionised understanding of the ancient Near East.
