ABSTRACT
The contemplation of archaeological time within geopolitical environment characterized by rampant Russophobia, pessimism of Ottoman longevity, and ultimately war itself had unforeseen consequences for Assyria's new stewards. The shadow of entropy crept across British Assyria. The chapter argues that the sentiments the British attached to Assyria and its discoverer had an objective correlative in the Layard Casket. In February 1854, however, the virtues of peace, piety, and civilization that the casket commemorates were very much under siege. The chapter examines a perceptual shift from the unbridled celebration of Layard's discoveries to the troubling precedent imperial Nineveh held for a country immersed in war in the Near East and, moreover, class tensions exacerbated by the conflict itself. It suggests that these perceptual entanglements with fallen Eastern empires also speak directly from and to Britain's contemporary imperial activities in the East. The chapter argues that the result is not so much an illustration of English virtue but of English virtue in crisis.
