Sir Austen Henry Layard was one of the leading British archaeologists of the nineteenth century. As befitted a Victorian gentleman, he was not a professional archeologist nor did he restrict his intellectual activities to archeology. He wore many hats in his public career as a diplomat, a politician, an art connoisseur and a man of letters.
Layard was born in Paris, France on March 5, 1817. He was the son of Marianne Austen and Peter John Layard, who were wed in England in 1814. Layard grew up in Florence, Italy among the artistic treasures of the city in a time when artists and intellectuals were exploring the central value in European culture. In his early adolescence, Layard spoke fluent French and Italian; his intellectual potential was evident. Although he did have some schooling, his mind and spirit were too undisciplined and reckless for the rigid European school systems of his day.
Described as an excavator of the Nineveh and a politician, Layard entered the legal profession in 1836 under the sponsorship of his wealthy uncle, Benjamin Austen. He remained in this career, in the solicitors office in London until 1839, when he set off on his first expedition. On July 10, 1839, Layard and his traveling companion, Edward Mitford, set off on the long and arduous journey, later described in detail in Nineveh and its Remains (1849). In April 1840, they entered the region of Mesopotamia at Mosul. Here Layard first sighted the ancient Mesopotamia monuments.
After remaining a night in Mosul to explore the mounds of Nineveh, Layard and Mitford left for Baghdad and stayed at Hammam Ali, where Layard first sighted Nimrud. After a two months stay in Baghdad, Mitford parted for the east, while Layard obtained consent to explore the territory of the Bakhtiyari tribe in Luristan. From August 1840 through July 1841, Layard encountered the Bakhtiyari tribe. His book, Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia (1887) accounted for Layard’s year among the Bakhtiyari.
In late 1845, Layard began his expedition of the excavation at Nimrud. He discovered the Assyrian regal monuments and cuneiform inscriptions which he concluded were the visible remains of Nineveh, the great Assyrian capital. His book, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1853), correctly identifies Kuyunjik as the true Nineveh. The book is based on the most prominent results of Layard’s second expedition. The emphasis of the book is not on Layard as protagonist but on the consequence and magnitude of the expedition and on his results.
Layard returned to London in December 1847, after an eight year absence. He was granted a D.C.L. at Oxford University in 1848. In December 1848, he returned to Constantinople to temporarily perform as an aide to Sir Stratford Canning but primarily to complete his work of excavating the ruins.
The Monuments of Nineveh were comprised of Layard’s own sketches of ruins he had excavated. These illustrations depicted his verbal narrative descriptions. His third book, Inscriptions of the Cuneiform Character, from Assyrian Monuments, discovered by A. H. Layard (1851) was centered on icons used as words. Layard’s speculations on word meanings and phonology were often inaccurate, but many of his theoretical assumptions dovetailed with the course later taken by scholarship on the subject.
In April 1851, Layard vowed never to return to the Nineveh site, for unknown reasons. Layard was not a scholar, rather he is now known as “Layard of Nineveh.” “Layard’s period of archaeology and adventure was concluded: turning to politics, he gained a seat in Parliament as member from Aylesbury for the Liberal Party Mining his journals and articles for data, he continued, however, to write about his expeditions and discoveries” (Brothers and Gergits, 1996).
Layard’s excavations at Nimrud and elsewhere provided crucial evidence of both the antiquity and the cultural achievement of ancient Mesopotamia, particularly Assyrian civilization. Through two memorable travelogues of his excavations at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, Layard presented his archaeological activities to readers in narrated forms lending a new depth to his readers’ awareness of their collective past. His writing chronicles are comprised of the exhilarating discovery of a layer of civilization that predates biblical and classical ones. Layard’s writings are described as travel writings because of the interrelation of past and present and the investigative direction of the narrative, which dominates the features of his writings about his expeditions and discoveries of the Nineveh. His narrative became a medium through which the ruins could tell their story. Ruins, for Layard, had their own personalities and voices. His words raise questions of cultural imperialism and epistemology central to modern critical debates.
Brothers, Barbara and Julia Gergits. (1996). Dictionary of Library Biography: British Travel Writers, 1837-1875. Detroit: Gale Research.
Kunitz, Stanley J. (1936). British Authors of the Nineteenth Century. New York: H.W. Wilson CO.
Olin, Norma. (1962). Index to Scientists of the World from Ancient to Modern Times. Ireland: G.W. Faxon CO.
Written by: Kimberly Hoffstatter