Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (381 page)

Layard , Sir Austen Henry
(1817–94)
[Bi].

British antiquarian whose expeditions and self-taught archaeological methods led to the investigation of sites in the Near East. Born in London and trained as a lawyer, Layard and a friend, Edward Mitford , set out to ride from England to Ceylon in 1839. During this journey Layard became fascinated by archaeology and became an unpaid diplomatic attaché in Constantinople so that he could continue and expand his interests. Between 1845 and 1847 he excavated at
NIMRUD
(thinking it was Nineveh), and while his methods were brutal compared with modern standards they were typical of the day and resulted in the discovery of a lot of structural evidence as well as artefacts. His book,
Nineveh and its remains
, published in 1849 sold well and allowed him to make good contacts. He resumed excavations the same year, and upon his return to England in 1851 prepared a second volume,
Discoveries and ruins of Nineveh and Babylon
, which appeared in 1853. It included a provisional chronology for the Assyrian kings and a description of their state. Layard subsequently became a politician and then British ambassador in Madrid and later Constantinople.
[Bio.: G. Waterfield , 1963,
Layard of Nineveh
. London: John Murray]

 
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A method of manual cultivation in which land is dug over with a spade to form low ridges of between 0.5m and 2.5m wide and with narrow furrows in between to assist drainage. Common in upland areas from the early 1st millennium
ad
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A soft, heavy, silvery-coloured metal (Pb) with a low melting point that was alloyed with copper and tin to form lead-bronze for much of later prehistory. In classical times lead was commonly used on its own for making pipes, roofing plates, and coffins, amongst other things.

 
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