XIV. Second Assyrian Room.—This would contain a continuation of the series from Nimroud. On the west side the colossal winged lions now in the western compartment of the Assyrian Transept, which would complete the monuments of Sardanapalus I; in other parts of the room, the few but important sculptures of Divanubara, Shammaz-Phal, and Pul, now somewhat scattered for want of the requisite accommodation in room, but for which there would here be ample space, and an advantageous light.
Third Assyrian Room.
XV. A proposed new room, to be entitled the Third Assyrian or Khorsabad Room, the Assistant-Keeper’s study being removed, and accommodation being provided for him elsewhere. The room might be forty-seven feet by forty, about the same height as XIV, and similarly lighted by a central skylight; beneath it would be a basement room for the uses of the establishment. Room XV would contain, first, the bas-reliefs of Tiglathpileser II from the South-west edifice of Nimroud; and secondly, the Khorsabad collection, or monuments of Sargina, which is next in chronological order to the Nimroud collection. The two colossal bulls of Sargina are marked in the plan as facing each other, an arrangement common at Khorsabad. Deducting space for the bulls, upwards of eighty linear feet of wall-surface would remain in the room, which is considerably more than the bas-reliefs of Tiglathpileser and Sargina require. The new building would necessarily obscure some of the windows of the adjoining basement, but this is of minor importance; and the evil might be diminished on the western and southern side, by leaving open spaces in the floor behind each of the colossal bulls. Between the bulls would be a passage to
Fourth Assyrian Room.
XVI. Fourth Assyrian or Sennacherib Room.—Here would be the first part of the collection discovered at Koyunjik, the monuments of Sennacherib, now inconveniently divided, and arranged partly in the ‘Koyunjik Gallery,’ and partly in the ‘Assyrian Basement Room.’ These monuments consist, almost entirely, of bas-reliefs, extending as at present arranged, to about three hundred and fifty-one feet (two hundred and eight on the ground floor, and one hundred and forty-three in the basement). In a lofty and wide room, however, such as XVI, an upper row of bas-reliefs might be introduced over many of the smaller slabs, now arranged in a single row only; by this means the sculptures of Sennacherib might all be included on the east, west, and north sides of the room, containing three hundred and seventeen linear feet of wall-space, leaving the south side, or twenty-seven feet, for sculptures of Sardanapalus III, the last monarch of the Assyrian series. In the centre of the room would be glass cases for the numerous tablets, cylinders, and other small objects of this collection, which it is most instructive to exhibit in connection with the sculptures. The only architectural alteration desirable in the room would be to open skylights in the lateral portion of the roof, and to close those in the central, in order to obtain a sharper light, upon the principle so successfully adopted in the present ‘Nimroud Side Gallery.’
Fifth Assyrian Room.
XVII. Fifth Assyrian Room.—Here would be the continuation of the monuments of Sardanapalus III, which conclude the Assyrian department; they are at present divided like those of Sennacherib, and part exhibited in the ‘Koyunjik Gallery,’ part in the basement room; altogether they now extend to three hundred and seventy-three feet; but as the greater part might, in Room XVII, be very well arranged in double rows, and some of those in single rows might, without injury, be less widely spread, two hundred and twenty-five feet would suffice for their exhibition; of this space twenty-seven feet would be supplied by Room XVI, and the remainder by XVII. The centre of the room should be appropriated as the preceding, and the lighting similarly modified.
Summary of accommodation for Assyrian Antiquities.
| Summary of the Accommodation provided in the Plan for Assyrian Antiquities. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Amount of Wall-space now in use for Assyrian Bas-reliefs. | Amount of Wall-space in the Plan for Assyrian Bas-reliefs. | ||
| Linear feet. | Linear feet. | ||
| Nimroud Side Gallery | 278 | Room XIII | 314 |
| Nimroud Central Saloon | 82 | Room XIV | 95 |
| Assyrian Transept | 125 | Room XV | 145 |
| Koyunjik Gallery | 242 | Room XVI | 344 |
| Assyrian Basement Room | 243 | Room XVII | 199 |
| 970 | 1,097 | ||
| Bas-reliefs in the middle of Basement Room | 254 | ||
| 1,224 | |||
It thus appears that the wall-space provided in the plan, though one hundred and twenty-seven feet more than the wall-space in the existing rooms, falls short by one hundred and twenty-seven feet of the total linear extent of the bas-reliefs, as now arranged. In lieu, however, of placing slabs in the middle of a gallery, as is done in the basement room, and as it would likewise be possible to do in XVI or XVII, it is thought better, in these last rooms, to provide the additional space by simply carrying up the slabs to a greater height.