Add MS 46890 A(31)

Genre: Archaeological Photography

View looking down onto the massive masonry block, with a large vase placed beside it and two figures posed in the background beside a section of column. One of a series of five views of the steps enclosed in Newton's despatch No. 15 of 3 April 1857. This photograph is there described as follows: 'The fifth photograph represents the western boundary of the Mausoleum precinct at the foot of the flight of [steps]. Immediately behind the large stone in this photograph the jar with the cuneiform inscriptions was found. This stone which weighed probably ten tons was grooved at the sides and wedged into the wall. It was fixed in its place by bronze bolts inserted in bronze sockets let into marble slabs. It must have been dropt into its place like a portcullis, and I think it may have been used to close the original entrance to the tomb after the body had been carried in.' (Mss. Add. 46898A f. 58). Reproduced as a tinted lithograph in Charles Thomas Newton, 'A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae' (2 vols., London, 1861), vol. 1, plate 8 (bottom). For another copy, see Mss. Add. 31980 (10).