Treasure Seekers: Edge of the Orient Page #3

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was doing, except his natural talent.

And he was rushing

because the French were competing,

and their influence over

the Turks could mean that

his license to be digging

would quickly be cut off.

And he needed a good find quickly

because he knew that's what would

bring the support

from the British government,

or from the British Museum,

from the British community

to enable him to go on.

Amazingly, on the very first day of

digging, Layard hit pay dirt.

A piece of alabaster appeared

above the soil.

We could not remove it,

and on digging downward it proved

to be the upper part of a large slab.

The men shortly uncovered ten more.

It was evident that the top of

a chamber had been discovered.

Digging along the walls of the chamber,

within weeks the men uncovered

a series of splendid sculptured panels.

Layard was captivated by

their beauty.

But he knew they wouldn't be enough

to get the British Museum to fund him.

He was looking for

the spectacular sculpture,

which would dazzle the public,

and give him fame in London.

I say this not out of

a criticism of Layard.

He was penniless.

This was his way to fame and fortune.

And he knew it.

A few months later,

Layard was on his way

to visit a local sheik

when two horsemen caught up with him.

"Hasten, O Bey," they cried.

"Hasten to the diggers,

for they have found Nimrod himself."

Rising out of the earth was

a gigantic head.

The workmen were terrified of

this colossus they called Nimrod,

and ran off to spread the news.

But Layard was elated.

He'd only been digging a few months,

and here was treasure

the French would envy.

Unfortunately, the resulting uproar

gave the Ottoman Turks the excuse

they'd been looking for

to shut down the dig.

Layard suspected

the hand of the French.

Quietly he kept a few men on

who unearthed two gigantic sculptures

strange and awe inspiring.

With his knowledge of art history,

Layard knew that he had found

an entirely new style of art.

The British Museum agreed and finally

gave him the money he needed.

A year after he'd begun,

Turkish permission in hand,

Layard launched full scale

excavations at Nimrud.

Every day produced

some new discovery.

My Arabs entered with alacrity

into the work,

and felt almost as much interested in

its results as I did myself.

Tunneling along the walls of

what turned out to be a palace,

they found hundreds of

alabaster sculptures,

some disintegrating from

ancient fires.

Layard drew what he could,

working from dawn until dusk.

In the evening,

after the labor of the day,

I often sat at the door

of my tent and gave myself up

to the full enjoyment imparted to

the senses by such scenes as these.

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