Types of mankind or, Ethnological researches : based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history, illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz; W. Usher; and H. S. Patterson / by J. C. Nott, and Geo. R. Gliddon.

  • Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Types of mankind or, Ethnological researches : based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history, illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz; W. Usher; and H. S. Patterson / by J. C. Nott, and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

    752/796 (page 700)
    In that part of our work discussing Alphabetic Origins, the student will find a sufficiency of authorities cited to verify the accuracy of those results to which this volume is confined. Recapitulation here is needless: but, should ever such inquirer follow the developments of palEeographical discovery, book by book, backwards from to-day, his bark will not ground until he reaches the year a. d. 1797, and touches the Memoire sur les antiquites de la Perse, et sur les medailles des Rois Sassanides. Its author, De Sacy, is to palaeography that which his colleague Cuvier is to pala;ontology: each being the inventor of the only true method of ratiocination in either science. From the former's Memoir we have borrowed many of the citations above presented; and, our remarks being but introductory to Assyrian chro- nology, a reference to the excellent compendium of Vaux (531) indicates the shortest road to summary annals of cuneiform investigation ; no less than corroborates our assertion that monumental Assyria was a blank down to 1843. Paul-Emile Botta (whose surname is dear to all American readers of his uncle's Storia dell' Independenza), appointed French Consul at Mosul in 1842, was the first to resuscitate Nineveh since her fall in b. c. 606. Proficient as an Orientalist and Eastern traveller, through residence in Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Arabia, since 1829-30, none possessed higher qualifications for the task; yet, with rare modesty, he attributes his own discoveries (as Newton to an apple his finding the laws of gravitation) to an accident; viz., to a couple of bricks, brought to him by a Nestorian dyer, who unearthed them whilst digging a founda- tion for stoves and boilers on the mound of KhorsaMd. (532) But, these two forlorn bricks were impressed with arrow-heads — things which Botta's education at once permitted him to appreciate. Ten years have since elapsed. The Louvre proudly displays his sculptured deterrations — national typography splendidly perpetuates his unaffected narrative — and, those who weigh science by dollars and cents may sneer at legislative munificence on learning that France, in 1849, had already voted $150,000 to eternalize Botta's Assyrian deeds; without either forgetting an individual's future, or considering the balance of an account-current between a man and his country thereby stricken. His consulate is now at Jerusalem. An intimate friend, and enthusiastic spectator of the French Consul's achievements, com- menced operations where the latter relinquished them. Henry Austen Layard — of noble Huguenot extraction—born at Ceylon, and brought up at Florence, is essentially a man of the East. Leaving England in 1839, he reached Mosul, 1842, by way of Germany, Russia, Dalmatia, the Bosphorus, Asia Minor, Persia, and Kusistan. His performances are familiar to all readers of Nineveh and its Remains, 1349 ; and Babylon and Nineveh, 2dExped., 1853. The letters LL.D. and M. P., and the office of Under Secretary of Foreign Affairs, tell how a nation can reward living merit: at the same time that Eastern questions point to eventualities not less nationally important. The British Museum consecrates for science the innumerable exhumations of Layard. Great as have been, however, the exploits of these discoverers, they must not dazzle our vision from beholding the less ostentatious if archaeologically superior researches of Raw- linson and of Hincks; but for whom, the cuneiform records of Nineveh and Babylon might have yet remained sealed books: although, so closely followed have these savants been by a Lowenstern, a De Longperier and a De Saulcy; so materially aided by Birch, Norris, and other skilful palaeographers; that by grouping them all into a Cuneiform School the invidious task of assigning a place to any one is cheerfully avoided. Our inquiry simply is, what have they all done in Assyrian chronology ? Let it first be observed en passant, that the long lists of Chaldrean, Arab, Assyrian, and Babylonish sovereigns, preserved by Ctesias, Ptolemy, and the Hebrews; (533) coupled with the pseudo-antiquity popularly assigned to the Xth Chapter of Genesis; had occasioned the most exaggerated notions, about 1844-50, of the epochas to which these sculptures of (531) Nineveh and Persepolis; London, ed., 1852. (532) Lettres d M. Mold; Decouvertes a. Khorsabad, 1845, p. 2: — Monument de Ninive, chap, ii., p. 23. (533) Frasek's excellent Mesopotamia, pp. 47-50; and Cory's Ancient Fragments; supply the classical authorities.