History · Introduction
'The world's first empire,' on display in London
Layard shipped Assyrian reliefs and colossal statues to the British Museum. Their display sent a message to France and other rivals.
Antiquities as imperial trophies.
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Thousands visited each week, and newspapers like the Illustrated London News ran drawings of the finds. Britain had discovered, and now possessed, what its historians called the world's first empire.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 3–4
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