"In the 1840s rival British and French teams began to uncover and document the remains of vast stone palaces near Mosul, now in northern Iraq but then part of the Ottoman Empire whose capital was Istanbul. The adventurers quickly identified the ruins they were digging as the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, known to them through the stories of the Old Testament and Classical authors. Thus they claimed it as part of their own, European heritage, and were little interested in its place in Middle Eastern history and tradition per se. Thus unwittingly the tone was set for interpreting ancient Assyrian – and, later, Babylonian and Sumerian – remains. […] The finds represented the ‘cradle of civilization,’ mankind’s first tottering steps toward European sophistication. [And] they were potential witnesses to events described in the Old Testament, appearing at a crucial juncture in Western European intellectual history […]. (Robson 2007: 59)."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Fellows of the British AcademyAcademics of University College LondonBritish historians of mathematicsHistorians of the Middle EastBritish Assyriologists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Eleanor Robson
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Eleanor Robson →
Related Quotes
"For many people, the attraction of Plimpton 322 has been exactly its status as a ‘first infantile step’ on the way to…"
"Since the normal tendency is to simplify, to trivialize, to eliminate the unfamiliar word or construction, the rule i…"
"There is a tiny pause, right at the start of the film that caught at my heart, but I didn't think anyone else would n…"
"Of the many metaphors for biography, two make useful starting points. One — a disturbing image — is the autopsy, the …"
"When I was very young, I think I was aware that I was reading different kinds of books, which slightly took my teache…"
"Emotions about our lost houses and gardens have to do with growing old and acquiring guilt: we are always leaving our…"
"Talking with a younger generation of readers, I see how Shelley has become increasingly a European figure, a Dante am…"
"The had promulgated an essentially private, elitist, specialist form of knowledge. Its ' was Latin, and its common cu…"
"At eighteen, just out of and desperate for freedom, I set off alone wandering around France for several months. My mo…"
"It is a brilliant vignette, prompting a meditation on the role of memory in biographical writing, and an exploration …"