In the course of the century Western archaeology spread across the Middle East and Asia, with spectacular results. In the 1850s, for example, the French Government was determined to mount large-scale operations in Assyria and Mesopotamia to showcase its dominance in the region. An archaeological team led by Victor Place excavated the palace of the Assyrian King Sargon II in Khorsabad (formerly Nineveh), would become the first systematic excavation of the site. This expedition resulted in a pioneering publication entitled "Ninevah and Assyria", jointly authored by Victor Place and Felix Thomas and published in around 1867. New national museums provided a setting for important archaeological finds, most of which were in this period bought back to Europe, and put Orientalists in the public spotlight as never before.