nd those belonging to cities on the southern coast
of Asia Minor, were introduced by the Phoenician colonists, evidently
show that Phoenicia had borrowed from the Assyrians and not from the
Egyptians. Indeed, as their language and written character (for the
cuneiform, you must remember, appears only to have been a monumental
character, perhaps Semetic, like the hieroglyphics of Egypt), coincided
with those of the Assyrian, it is most probable that their sympathies
were with that people.

I assume that the language of the two nations was the same; this may
have been the case at one period, but whether throughout the existence
of the Assyrian empire, may be doubtful. At any rate, I believe the real
Assyrians and the Phoenicians, like all the nations occupying Syria
and Mesopotamia, to have been of the pure Semetic stock. I regret that I
have not time to make you a sketch of a bas-relief. A specimen of this
kind would at once show you how much nearer allied the arts of Greece
are with those of Assyria, than with those of Egypt. One thing appears
now to be pretty certain--that all Western Asia, Persia, Susiana, Media,
Asia Minor, &c. were fundamentally indebted to Assyria for their
knowledge of the arts. Persepolis is a mere copy of an Assyrian
monument, as far as the sculpture and ornaments are concerned, with the
addition of external architecture, of which, as far as I am yet able to
judge, the Assyrians appear to have been almost entirely ignorant.

There is no reason, therefore, to reject altogether the supposition that
the Arts may have been transmitted from Assyria, through Phoenicia,
into Greece, or, indeed, that the Arts may have passed into that country
through Asia Minor. The Assyrians, in the extreme elegance and taste
displayed in their ornaments, in their study of anatomy, and in their
evident attempts at composition, had much in common with the Greeks. I
think artists will be surprised when they see the collection of drawings
I have been able to make, and that one of the results of the discoveries
at Nimroud will be new views with regard to the early history of the
arts.

When I first came here, all the Arabs around told me that Nimroud was
built by Athur, or Assur, and that it was the ancient capital of
Assyria. Great faith may generally be placed in such traditions in the
East. In Mesopotamia, and in the country watered by the Tigris and
Euphrates, it is astonishing how names have been preserved, even when