They call it Kouyunjik—the mound covering the ruins of the North Palace. Located just on the opposite bank of the Tigris, forty feet high, it is a hill with mysteries buried inside. This is where, one early-summer afternoon thousands of years ago, a tiny raindrop fell from the skies on the head of King Ashurbanipal, and this is where Arthur Smyth is now digging through layers of earth, layers of time.
