The Right Honourable Sir Austen Henry Layard (IPA: /ˈɔːstɪn ˈhɛnriː lɛəd/; 5 March 1817 – 5 July 1894) was a British traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author and diplomatist, best known as the excavator of Nimrud. The Right Honourable (abbreviated as The Rt Hon) is an Honorific prefix that is traditionally applied to certain The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath) is a British Order of chivalry founded by George Events 363 - Roman Emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of 90000 to attack the Sassanid Empire, in a Year 1817 ( MDCCCXVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England. Year 1894 ( MDCCCXCIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. He was born in Paris. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city
The Layards were of Huguenot descent. The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France (or French Calvinists) from the sixteenth to the eighteenth His father, Henry PJ Layard, of the Ceylon Civil Service, was the son of Charles Peter Layard, dean of Bristol, and grandson of Daniel Peter Layard, the physician. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Through his mother, a daughter of Nathaniel Austen, banker, of Ramsgate, he inherited Spanish blood. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. His uncle was Benjamin Austen, a London solicitor and close friend of Benjamin Disraeli in the 1820s and 1830s. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. A "solicitor" is a term used in many Common law jurisdictions for a lawyer who offers legal services outside of the courts Benjamin Disraeli 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS (born Benjamin D'Israeli; 21 December 1804 &ndash 19 April 1881 was Events and trends Nationalistic independence helped reshape the world during this decade Greece gains independence from the Ottoman Empire Events and trends Electromagnetic induction discovered by Michael Faraday.
This strain of cosmopolitanism must have been greatly strengthened by the circumstances of his education. Much of his boyhood was spent in Italy, where he received part of his schooling, and acquired a taste for the fine arts and a love of travel; but he was at school also in England, France and Switzerland. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation After spending nearly six years in the office of his uncle Benjamin, he was tempted to leave England for Ceylon by the prospect of obtaining an appointment in the civil service, and he started in 1839 with the intention of making an overland journey across Asia. Year 1839 ( MDCCCXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common
After wandering for many months, chiefly in Persia, and having abandoned his intention of proceeding to Ceylon, he returned in 1842 to Constantinople, where he made the acquaintance of Sir Stratford Canning, the British ambassador, who employed him in various unofficial diplomatic missions in European Turkey. Constantinople (Κωνσταντινούπολις Konstantinoúpolis, or gr ἡ Πόλις hē Polis, Latin: la CONSTANTINOPOLIS Stratford Canning 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe KG GCB PC ( 4 November 1786 - 14 August 1880) was a In 1845, encouraged and assisted by Canning, Layard left Constantinople to make those explorations among the ruins of Assyria with which his name is chiefly associated. This expedition was in fulfilment of a design which he had formed, when, during his former travels in the East, his curiosity had been greatly excited by the ruins of Nimrud on the Tigris, and by the great mound of Kuyunjik, near Mosul, already partly excavated by Paul-Émile Botta. Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great Rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of southeastern For the village in Azerbaijan see Mosul Azerbaijan. Mosul (الموصل Al Mūṣul, Kurdish: Mosul/Ninawa, Musul Paul-Émile Botta ( December 6, 1802 – March 29, 1870) was French Consul in Mosul (then in the Ottoman Empire, now in
Layard remained in the neighbourhood of Mosul, carrying on excavations at Kuyunjik and Nimrud, and investigating the condition of various peoples, until 1847; and, returning to England in 1848, published Nineveh and its Remains: with an Account of a Visit to tile Chaldaean Christians of Kurdistan, and the Yezidis, or Devil-worshippers; and an Inquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians (2 vols. , 1848–1849).
To illustrate the antiquities described in this work he published a large folio volume of Illustrations of the Monuments of Nineveh (1849). After spending a few months in England, and receiving the degree of D. C. L. from the University of Oxford, Layard returned to Constantinople as attaché to the British embassy, and, in August 1849, started on a second expedition, in the course of which he extended his investigations to the ruins of Babylon and the mounds of southern Mesopotamia. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the Babylon was a City-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding He is credited with discovering the Library of Ashurbanipal during this period. The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, is a collection of thousands of Clay tablets His record of this expedition, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, which was illustrated by another folio volume, called A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh, was published in 1853. During these expeditions, often in circumstances of great difficulty, Layard despatched to England the splendid specimens which now form the greater part of the collection of Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum.
Apart from the archaeological value of his work in identifying Kuyunjik as the site of Nineveh, and in providing a great mass of materials for scholars to work upon, these two books of Layard's were among the best written books of travel in the language.
Layard now turned to politics. Elected as a Liberal member for Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire in 1852, he was for a few weeks under-secretary for foreign affairs, but afterwards freely criticized the government, especially in connection with army administration. Aylesbury is a Constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Buckinghamshire (abbreviated Bucks) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. Year 1852 ( MDCCCLII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year He was present in the Crimea during the war, and was a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the conduct of the expedition. Crimea (kraɪˈmiːə or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Крим Автономна Республіка Крим Avtonomna Respublika Krym; Крым The Crimean War, also known in Russia as the Eastern War (Восточная война Vostochnaya Vojna) (March 1854–February 1856 was fought In 1855 he refused from Lord Palmerston an office not connected with foreign affairs, was elected lord rector of Aberdeen university, and on June 15 moved a resolution in the House of Commons (defeated by a large majority) declaring that in public appointments merit had been sacrificed to private influence and an adherence to routine. "Lord Palmerston" and "Henry Temple" redirect here The University of Aberdeen is an Ancient university founded in 1495, in Old Aberdeen, Scotland. Events 763 BC - Assyrians record a Solar eclipse that will be used to fix the Chronology of Mesopotamian history The House of Commons' is the Lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords After being defeated at Aylesbury in 1857, he visited India to investigate the causes of the Mutiny. He unsuccessfully contested York in 1859, but was elected for Southwark in 1860, and from 1861 to 1866 was under-secretary for foreign affairs in the successive administrations of Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell. Southwark was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Southwark district of South London.
In 1866 he was appointed a trustee of the British Museum, and in 1868 chief commissioner of works in W.E. Gladstone's government and a member of the Privy Council. He retired from parliament in 1869, on being sent as envoy extraordinary to Madrid. In 1877 he was appointed by Lord Beaconsfield ambassador at Constantinople, where he remained until Gladstone's return to power in 1880, when he finally retired from public life. In 1878, on the occasion of the Berlin Congress, he received the Grand Cross of the Bath. See also Berlin Conference (1884-85 re Africa and Berlin Conference of 1954 (Cold War The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath) is a British Order of chivalry founded by George Layard's political life was somewhat stormy. His manner was brusque, and his advocacy of the causes which he had at heart, though always perfectly sincere, was vehement to the point sometimes of recklessness.
Layard retired to Venice, where he devoted much of his time to collecting pictures of the Venetian school, and to writing on Italian art. Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the On this subject he was a disciple of his friend Giovanni Morelli, whose views he embodied in his revision of Franz Kugler's Handbook of Painting, Italian Schools (1887). Giovanni Morelli ( February 25, 1816 – February 28, 1891) was an Italian art critic and Political figure. Franz Kugler is the name of several people Franz Theodor Kugler, (1808 - 1858 German art historian and poet He wrote also an introduction to Constance Jocelyn ffoulkes's translation of Morelli's Italian Painters (1892–1893), and edited that part of Murray's Handbook of Rome (1894) which deals with pictures. In 1887 he published, from notes taken at the time, a record of his first journey to the East, entitled Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana and Babylonia. An abbreviation of this work, which as a book of travel is even more delightful than its predecessors, was published in 1894, shortly after the author's death, with a brief introductory notice by Lord Aberdare. Layard also from time to time contributed papers to various learned societies, including the Huguenot Society, of which he was first president. He died in London.
Contents |
Works
Bibliography
- Layard, A. H. (1848–49). Inquiry into the Painters and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians (vol. 1–2).
- Layard, A. H. (1849). Nineveh and its Remains. London: John Murray. John Murray (1745–1793 was the founder of a British publishing house renowned for the roster of authors it has published in its history including Jane Austen
- Layard, A. H. (1849). Illustrations of the Monuments of Nineveh.
- Layard, A. H. (1849–53). The Monuments of Nineveh. London: John Murray.
- Layard, A. H. (1851). Inscriptions in the cuneiform character from Assyrian monuments. London: Harrison and sons.
- Layard, A. H. (1852). A Popular Account of Discoveries at Nineveh. London: John Murray.
- Layard, A. H. (1853). Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon. London: John Murray.
- Layard, A. H. (1853). A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh. London: John Murray
- Layard, A. H. (1854). The Ninevah Court in the Crystal Palace. London: John Murray.
- Layard, A. H. (1894). Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia. London: John Murray.
- Layard, A. H. (1903). Autobiography and Letters from his childhood until his appointment as H. M. Ambassador at Madrid. (vol. 1–2) London: John Murray.
External links
- Nineveh and its Remains (vol. 1) (1849)
- Nineveh and its Remains (vol. 2) (1849)
- The Monuments of Nineveh (1849)
- The Monuments of Nineveh (1853)
- A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh (1853)
- The Monuments of Nineveh (1849-53)
- Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1853).
- A Popular Account of Discoveries at Nineveh (1854)
- The Ninevah Court in the Crystal Palace (1854)
- Autobiography and letters from his childhood until his appointment as H.M. Ambassador at Madrid (vol. 1) (1903)
- Autobiography and letters from his childhood until his appointment as H.M. Ambassador at Madrid (vol. 2) (1903)
References and further reading
- Brackman, Arnold C. The Luck of Nineveh: Archaeology's Great Adnventure. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1978 (hardcover, ISBN 0-07-007030-X); New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981 (paperback, ISBN 0442282605).
- Jerman, B. R. The Young Disraeli. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960.
- Larsen, Mogens T. The Conquest of Assyria. Routledge. 1996. ISBN 041514356X - the best modern account of Layard.
- Lloyd, Seton. Foundations in the Dust: The Story of Mesopotamian Exploration. London; New York: Thames & Hudson, 1981 (hardcover, ISBN 0-500-05038-4).
- Waterfield, Gordon. Layard of Nineveh. London: John Murray, 1963.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone
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