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A popular Account of discoveries at Nineveh was written by Sir Austen Henry Layard about his adventures and discoveries surrounding the excavations he led nearby Mosul. It is a narrative of the experiences that Layard made during this time in todays Iraq, where he set out to discover the remains of the ancient city Nineveh, which used to be the capitol of the Neo-Assyrian empire. The book was published in 1851 as a shortened version of his previously published book "Nineveh and its Remains", to be more accessible for the general public. Until Layard's discoveries there was no indication of the remains of the city. Layard was a diplomat and author besides being and archeologist.

In contrast to the name of the book, Layard did not discover Nineveh during the excavations described in the book, but instead found large sides of the ancient city Nimrud. Between 1849 and 1851 he set out for further excavations in Iraq and then discovered the city of Nineveh.

Nineveh
Nineveh is located in today's Iraq in close proximity to Mosul. It used to be the capitol of the Neo-Assyrian empire until the battle of Nineveh, during which the city was captured and burned down by the Babylonians and the Medes. It is not clear if the battle itself destroyed the city or if the Tigris flooded it. Nineveh was one of the four major Assyrian royal cities in the surrounding of the Tigris, the other ones being Nimrud, Khorsabad and Ashur.

At the time the excavations took place Iraq was still part of the Ottoman Empire, during the time of the Tanzimat Era.

Austen Henry Layard
Layard himself was a trained solicitor and worked in his uncle's office in London. In 1839 he made his way to Ceylon in order to further pursue his career in law, which was the beginning of his journey through the middle east. He decided to accompany Henry Mitford who had planned a land journey from Palestine to Ceylon. In 1840 he parted ways with Mitford and trying to obtain a position in the Foreign Office he started to work for Sir Stratford Canning as an unoffizial employee. The following excavations were funded by Canning, after Layard offered himself to continue the excavations that were started by Paul Emile Botta, as a way to continue serving the interests of the Foreign Office. His outer appearance was supposed to be that of a traveller interested in antiquities, while he was supposed to establish connections to the Pasha and Sultan with discretion and to start the excavations in a discrete manner, because he did not have the actual jurisdiction for them.

Content
Layard startes his journey through Asia Minor and Syria in 1840. He describes his desire to explore the ruins that are in the surrounding of the river tigris to follow up on the mystery of the lost cities of previous empires. While he already has the idea to do excavations, he is struggeling to find funding for the project. At the same time Paul-Emile Botta starts working on excavations on the mound Kuyunjik and discovers parts of the remains of Nineveh. Excited by the possibility of finding more remains and finally with financial support of Sir Stratford Canning he travels to the finding side near Mosul.

He arrives in Mosul and presents his travel documents to the Pashaw Keritli Oglu who reigns over the region, to inform him about his stay, but decides to keep the reason for his stay secret. The Pashaw is known to be a cruel leader and does not fear to use brutal violence to obtain taxes from his people. Layard travels to the excavation places and hires some workers from nearby villages. The excavations start and seem to be promising, Layard and his workers discover several slabs that make up a chamber and have the inscriptions. Layard decides to inform the Pasha now about the actual reason for his stay and travels back to Mosul. The Pasha prohibits the excavations by claiming that there were gravestones on the excavation side that should not be removed. Months later, the Pashaw gets removed from his position due to his cruel ruling and the excavations can be continued.

The excavations are allowed to continue, but Layard finds more issues to solve as the Cadi from Mosul stirs up the people against Layard. The excavations have to be stopped again, after some waiting Layard continues secretly without the permission of the Pasha. He and his workers discover a massive sculpture that the workers interpret as being Nimrod himself. The news excite many people in the surrounding villages and eventually reach the Cadi of Mosul aswell. The Pashaw orders Layard to stop the excavations again, but is soon replaced by Hafiz Pashaw, who succeeds to be become governor and is then replaced by the Tahyar Pashaw. He is supportive of Layards excavations and lets him proceed. Layard continues the excavations and discovers more slabs and sculptures, some of which he sends home to England to be shown in the British museum.

To escape the heat which is delaying the excavations and causing Layard health problems he travels to the Tiyari mountains. Upon arrival in the village Asheeta he learns that Beder Khan Bey is planning to attack the village soon. Bey already had attacked various houses in the region and even massacred the inhabitants of another village called Lizan, which Layard is being told when climbing through the mountaints with a man from the region and seeing the bones that remained after the massacre. As he continues to travel through the region he discusses the situation with the villagers he meets, to warn them about the current developments. After he leaves Tkhuma he has an encounter with the the right hand of Nur-Ullah Bey, who himself works for the Beder Khan Bey. After receiving some threats that he and his group should turn around he nevertheless decides to continue his journey to Baz, but upon arriving he decides to return as quick as possible to Asheeta to escape the Beder Khan Bey before he starts attacking the villages. Layard heads then again to Mosul.

On his way back to Mosul he is invited to a fest of the Yezidis, a minority that has been surpressed by the Pashaw due to religious differences. He returns to Mosul and accompanies the Pashaw onto a peaceful visit to the Yezidis, but the Yezidis immediately attack the Pashaw's soldiers which leads to a battle. Layard returns to his excavations and is able to continue with additional funding of the British museum. He discovers more artifacts and arranges shipments to England. The excavations start to become increasingly difficult, because the Arab tribes that protected Layard and his workers from raids decided to leave the area due to insufficient grass caused by intense draught. As the excavations are now becoming increasingly more dangerous Layard makes the decision to ship the statues he found so far too England. The excavations have to stop soon afterwards as Layard runs out of funding and so he returns to England.

Reception
As the excavations were successful Layard was able to take artifacts of considerable historical value to Britain, such as the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, which is now part of the British museums inventory.

The english press celebrated the first edition of the book "Nineveh and its Remains" as a big success. Big contemporary literature magazines such as Bentley's Miscellany and Fraser's Magazine both praised the discoveries and the book. According to a letter exchange between Layard and his travel companion "Nineveh and its Remains" was sold 8000 times in 1850. "The popular Account of the discoveries at Nineveh" was sold another 12000 times. In addition, after publishing the book Layard received general attention that helped him forward his career, during his second expedition he was employed as an Undersecretary at the British Embassy at Constantinople. In 1877 he was appointed its Ambassador. Additionally he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1848, and received the Royal Geographical Society's gold medal in 1849. In 1878 he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the bath.

The work of Layard and his writings were also celebrated for their biblical implications. From many sides, including Layard himself, the findings at the sides were interpreted as proof to some truth of the bible. Especially the fact that the city was indeed destroyed as the prophets had told was taken as a sign that the bible itself must hold some truth. Layard himself also made connections between the bible and his findings arguing that the mounds of the discovered cities Nimroud, Kouyounijk, Khorsabad and Karamles taken together have arguably the same size as the the city of Nineveh has described by Jonah the prophet in the bible. Many biblical

Importance for historical knowledge
The discoveries at Nineveh contributed to todays knowledge off the Assyrian empire due to the cuneiform inscriptions that were found on many relics, which were translated by Henry Creswicke Rawlinson.

After the excavations the idea that with the excavations some of the origins of the western culture could be understood got popular. Layard's findings were portrayed as giving information about the origin of traditions and culture as for example by The Athenaeum.