The five great monarchies of the ancient eastern world; or, The history, geography, and antiquites of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia (1862) (14781534784)

Identifier: fivegreatmonarch011862rawl (find matches)
Title: The five great monarchies of the ancient eastern world; or, The history, geography, and antiquites of Chaldaea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, and Persia
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Rawlinson, George, 1812-1902
Subjects: Mauritius Export Development and Investment Authority History, Ancient
Publisher: London, J. Murray
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive



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d, they would be, at anyrate, greatly lessened by supposing the roofing tohave extended to two-thirds or three-fourths ofthe apartment, and the opening to have beencomparatively narrow. We may also suppose thaton very bright and on very rainy days carpets orother awnings were stretched across the opening,which furnished a tolerable defence against theweather. On the whole, our choice seems to lie—so far as ^ Mr. Fergusson disallows the hj^-pasthral system even here (^TruePrincijyles of Beauty, p. 381) ; butlater writers do not seem convertedby his arguments. (See the articleon Templum in Smiths Dictionaryof Oreelc and Boman Antiquities,p. 1105, 2nd edition; and compareMr. Falkenors Daxlalus, Introduc-tion, pp. 18-20.) •• Nineveh and its Bemains, vol.i. )). 259. Qompare Nineveh andBabylon, p. 647; and see also therestoration of an Assyrian interior inhis Monmnents of Niiieveh, 1st series,PI. 2, from which the illustration over-leaf is taken. Fergusson, Palaces of Nineveh,\^. 270.
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Chap. VI. PROBABLE CHARACTER OF THE ROOFS. 385 the great halls are concerned—between this theoryof the mode in which they were roofed and lighted,and a supposition from which archaeologists havehitherto shrunk, namely, that they were actuallyspanned from side to side by beams. If we rememberthat the Assyrians did not content themselves withthe woods produced in their own country, but ha-bitually cut timber in the forests of distant regions, asfor instance of Amanus, Hermon, and Lebanon, whichthey conveyed to Nineveh, we shall perhaps notthink it impossible that they may have been able toaccomplish the feat of roofing in this single fashioneven chambers of thirteen or fourteen yards in width,Mr. Layard observes that rooms of almost equal widthwith the Assyrian halls are to this day covered inwith beams laid horizontally from side to side inmany parts of Mesopotamia, although the only timberused is that furnished by the indigenous j)ahns andpoplars.^ May not more have been accomplishe