Paul-Émile Botta
Paul-Émile Botta (born December 6, 1802 in Turin , † March 29, 1870 in Achères near Poissy ) was a French doctor , politician and archaeologist . He is best known for his pioneering archaeological work in Assyria , where he first worked in the biblical Nineveh and then discovered the palace of the Assyrian King Sargon II in Khorsabad , in today's Iraq .
After completing his studies, Botta was a doctor on board a French ship, where he was mainly engaged in the biological research of the islands that were approached. He then worked mainly in Egypt, where he mainly dealt with ethnography . From 1842 he was the French consul in Mosul , from where he started his first expedition to Nineveh, but broke it off again due to the lack of hoped-for success and then concentrated on Khorsabad.
Many of his finds were brought to the Louvre in Paris , where they can still be seen today. It is the earliest collection of Assyrian art in Europe. His archaeological career ended with the February Revolution in 1848 , after which he was first transferred to Jerusalem and then worked in Tripoli . Because of health problems he returned to France in 1868, where he died two years later.
Life
Career
Paul-Émile Botta was born in Turin in 1802. His father Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta was a scientist. From 1803 the family lived in France, which was united with Piedmont . His father did not return until 1831 with the permission of King Karl Albert . Paul-Émile studied medicine and graduated at the age of 23.
He then worked from 1826 to 1829 as a surgeon and surgeon on board the "Heros" under the command of Captain August Bernard Duhaut-Cilly. During this world tour he wrote works on the flora and fauna of California and various islands and wrote a French- Hawaiian dictionary.
In 1830 he was invited by the Ottoman viceroy in Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha , to work as a doctor to help modernize the country. One of those invited was Antoine-Barthélémy Clot (1798–1868), founder of the l'École de médecine militaire in Cairo . During his stay in Egypt, Botta took part in an expedition to Sennaar on the Blue Nile in Sudan , where he put together a collection of ten to twelve thousand insects and around 1000 skins of birds, amphibians and mammals, with which he returned to Cairo in 1833.
That year Botta was appointed consul in Alexandria by the French government, succeeding Bernardino Drovetti . Two years later he was hired by the Natural History Museum to explore the coast of the Red Sea and Yemen . Botta's interest was focused on previously inaccessible places and the local population. Up until now these were considered to be nomads living in a desert in Europe. Yemen had already been visited by Danish scientists in the previous century, including the German Carsten Niebuhr , but Botta Niebuhr's treatise appeared to be too scientific. In contrast, he wanted to capture the real life of the Arabs , including their characters and passions. His results were published in 1841 in the volume Relation d'un Voyage dans l'Yémen, entrepris 1837 pour le Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris .
Excavations in Nineveh (1842)
Impressed by the travels of the Englishman Claudius James Rich in Mesopotamia and his collection of manuscripts and coins, which were bought by the British Museum in London after his death , Botta Jules Mohl , the secretary of the Asian Society in Paris , suggested visiting the area from Mosul to examine more closely. Botta was appointed French consul of Mosul in 1842, which gave him the opportunity to explore the region. At that time, this area, ancient Mesopotamia, was under the control of the Ottoman Empire .
In December 1842 Botta began his excavations on the west side of the hill in Kujundschik, Tell Kujundschik , which Claudius James Rich had identified as Nineveh . His workers unearthed numerous fragments of bas-reliefs and inscriptions, but the 3 months of work did not lead to the hoped-for discovery of wall remains or larger parts.
Botta's work had caused a stir. Local residents knew that he was buying stones with inscriptions. A man from Khorsabad brought him some of them with the remark that he could bring Botta as much as he wanted. This man was a dyer and built his ovens with stones he found on the hill on which the village was built. In mid-March 1843 Botta was ready to follow this advice, as it was unsuccessful in Kujundschik.
Botta sent some of his workers to Khorsabad, who discovered figures and inscriptions with cuneiform texts .
Excavations in Dur Šarrukin (1843)
Now Botta made his way to Khorsabad. Two roads led from Mosul to Khorsabad, one north and the other south, past the mountain of Kujundschik. If you took the north route, you had to cross the river Khauser (Khoser) near its confluence with the Tigris and then again just before Khorsabad. It was often difficult to cross during the rainy season. This could be avoided by staying on the east bank of the Khauser, in the south of Kujundschik. Botta usually took this route. He gives the way as "five hours by caravan from Mosul".
His workers were fortunate that they had started the excavations at the exact point on the hill where the building was best preserved, so that they only had to follow the walls to uncover the entire structure. In a few days they had exposed all the remains of a room with a facade covered with bas-reliefs. Botta concluded that they had only discovered a small part of a large building that must still be hidden under the mass of rubble. So he had a shaft dug some distance away and came across other bas-reliefs that were in very good condition. He also found two altars and part of a facade that protruded from the earth at the extreme point on the other side. Then some of his companions showed him a line of elevations that could well be an enclosure.
In his letter of April 5, 1843, he shared his discoveries with Jules Mohl, along with a map of what had been uncovered and some drawings and copies of the various inscriptions. At the same time he sent a telegram with the famous phrase “Ninive etait retrouvee” (Nineveh was found again). Another letter followed on May 2nd with drawings and inscriptions. At this point, Botta's team had excavated doors and rooms as well as a wall decorated with bas-reliefs. Both Botta's first and second letters were submitted to the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and published in the magazine of the Asian Society in Paris.
Since Botta had previously financed his excavations out of his own pocket, his funds were now running low, although Mr. Mohl had contributed a sum. The publication of his reports had attracted a great deal of attention in Paris. Together with Jules Mohl, Messrs. Vital and Letrouse campaigned for financial support to continue Botta's excavations. On May 24, 1843, the French Minister of the Interior, Charles Marie Tanneguy Duchâtel , decided to provide Botta with an amount of 3,000 francs for further excavations.
Difficulties with the Pasha in Mosul
Because of the swampy surroundings of Khorsabad, Botta and his workers had to contend with disease. There were difficulties with the local authorities, who did not understand the purpose of the excavation. They believed he was on a treasure hunt, they took the copied inscriptions for talismans, the huge figures frightened them and it was believed that Botta was looking for evidence that Europeans wanted to use to claim old property rights from the Sultan. The governor of Mosul had his people supervise the excavations and ordered them to report gold discoveries immediately. Despite these constant arguments with the Pasha, the excavations continued on a small scale until October, when the Pasha stopped all further work.
Botta tried to lift the ban and on October 15 sent a courier to the French ambassador in Constantinople with the request to continue the work. Botta continued to wait for the Firman . The French ambassador to Constantinople had to pull out all the stops to dispel the false accusations from Mosul against the Ottoman court.
Benevolence from Paris
In Paris, Botta's excavations were followed with great interest. The government complied with his request to send a draftsman to copy the found objects on October 5 and 12, 1843; money was granted and, at the suggestion of the Academy of Artists Eugène Flandin, who was already working on similar tasks with the architect Pascal Coste, was sent 1840–41 in Persia. The ministers had also decided that all sculptures that would allow transport should be brought to Paris and that a publication should be made to make Botta's discoveries widely known.
Botta meanwhile had all the bas-reliefs that were to be shipped to France created in his house and the inscriptions copied. In doing so, he recapitulated what he had achieved so far:
He had opened a door and found a bronze lion at the foot of one of the winged gatekeeper figures, the only one that had once adorned the door. When the workers were digging for the foundation of his house, they discovered the head of a bull from another door, and this fact convinced him that the whole area must be filled with remains. Finally, the reports from the residents convinced him that ruins had been buried here. Later he also found pieces of basalt stones. So he had unmistakable evidence of the existence of archaeological treasures on the entire site. He shared his conviction with Mohl in a letter.
Botta buys houses in Khorsabad
There were other difficulties in Mosul as well. The village of Khorsabad was on an archaeological site that Botta wanted to excavate. To realize this plan, it was desirable to move the residents to another place and demolish their houses. But the law did not allow encroachment on land suitable for cultivation, which meant that the space reserved for a new village could not be taken from the land around the hill.
In the end the perseverance of the French ambassador to Constantinople, Baron de Bourquency, triumphed over the opposition of the Sublime Porte . Due to a special agreement, the residents of Khorsabad were authorized to sell their houses and temporarily settle at the foot of the hill. Botta's house, which had caused the discrepancies, was allowed to remain in place until the excavations were completed. The exploration was permitted on the condition that the soil was to be restored to the way Botta found it at the beginning, so that the village could be rebuilt on the site. A representative of the Sublime Porte was sent to Mosul to avoid new difficulties.
These negotiations had taken several months in Constantinople and it lasted until May 4, 1844, when Eugène Flandin arrived in Mosul with all the papers and the firm.
The work could be resumed. First the houses had to be demolished. There was little trouble with the residents who were happy to move into new houses. It was different with the owners or tenants of the property. Botta had to compensate this in order to be able to build the new houses. Their demands were so high that they would have used up a large part of his funds. The new pasha made him aware of the peculiarities of Muslim law. All the land belonged to the Sultan and only he could dispose of it. Users were given temporary approval and paid an annual fee to the state, but they were not owners. Botta now appealed to the legal situation and paid them the price he considered appropriate. The supposed owners were suddenly delighted and asked him not to mention anything about their behavior towards the pasha. In 1845 the Hohe Pforte revoked all permits previously granted in the Mosul district and decreed that the usage permit could be bought annually at a public auction.
Excavation resumed (1844)
In mid-May 1844 all obstacles were removed. Botta only had to follow the wall that they had already exposed before the ban. One excavation led directly to the next task. They followed the clues until all clues disappeared. However, the building must have been larger once. So they continued to follow the stone walls, but they did not find any reliefs. Various signs indicated that the building had been vandalized and that the building materials must have been moved to another location for other purposes.
Botta now employed over 300 workers at times. Both he and Eugène Flandin were compensated for the great hardship by the results and the manner in which they worked together. Botta appreciated the zeal with which Flandin threw himself into the work. Flandin was less used to long stays and the miserable life in the burning heat of Middle Eastern countries. But he never lost his courage. Botta's official duties as a consul did not allow him to be constantly present in Khorsabad. Then Flandin took over the supervision and divided the workers.
Significant finds from Botta
Reliefs
Based on the relief panels found by Botta and the drawings of Flandin, the Louvre put together a frieze that is now called the "Frieze of the Transportation of Timber". The scene was cut on five panels of alabaster plaster (also called "Mosul marble"), a material that the Assyrians traditionally used for orthostats . Today's frieze in the Louvre has the dimensions
- Louvre AO 19888 - height 3.03 m; Width 2.16 m
- Louvre AO 19889 - H. 3.08 m; B. 4.09 m (two panels became one)
- Louvre AO 19890 - H. 3.08 m; B. 2.41 m
- Louvre AO 19891 - H. 3.08 m; B. 2.41 m
There are no inscriptions on this frieze. When it was discovered, little was known about Assyrian culture. The frieze was interpreted as a picture story of an attack on a maritime bulwark (the siege of Pelusium by Sennacherib or the capture of Ashdod by Sargon ) or the construction of a city or a palace. However, the generally accepted interpretation is that of the transport of cedar wood from Lebanon along the Phoenician coast for the construction of Sargon's palace.
Made from five panels, the transport of wood is shown here. This frieze is a famous work from the palace of King Sargon II in Khorsabad. It is one of the first Assyrian reliefs known in the West. It has been reproduced many times to illustrate the various subjects: the construction of an Assyrian palace, trade, Phoenician civilization, and the cedars of Lebanon.
The frieze was badly damaged but could be partially reconstructed based on the drawings by Eugene Flandin, whereby two panels had to become one.
Description in the Louvre of the formerly approx. 12 m long and over 3 m high frieze from right to left:
Relief facade n Palace Sargon II - drawing Flandin
Relief facade n Palace Sargon II - drawing Flandin
Relief facade n Palace Sargon II - drawing Flandin
Relief facade n Palace Sargon II - drawing Flandin
- AO 19888 - 28 people are busy with the removal of wood in a mountainous landscape
- AO 19889 - from two panels. Ten boats, each with a horse's head on the bow and a fish tail on the stern, sail on the sea teeming with creatures. Seven are heavily laden with posts or dragging logs behind them. The boats leave two island cities, which are fortified with a double wall, probably Tire and the island of Ruad, the Arwad of the Phoenicians. Three fantasy figures, a merman (mermaid) and two winged bulls act as protectors.
- AO 19890 - Four boats approach the bank while two others drive away. The wood is unloaded under the protection of a merman (mermaid)
- AO 19891 The upper part of the relief is a modern restoration. The lower part of the board shows the unloading of wood. Eleven men pull a load with a rope. The end of a mast can be seen below. Next to the path is a pile of nine logs, cut and drilled to attach a rope.
Lamassu
When Sargon II around 713 BC BC founded his new capital Dur Sarrukin (today Khorsabad), he enclosed it together with some palaces with a large wall made of air-dried bricks (mud bricks), which was broken by seven gates. Protective geniuses were placed on either side of these entrances to act as guards. But they also had a strictly architectural function, because they carried the weight of the archway.
Cut from a block, the bull stands more than 4 m high, 4 m long and 1 m wide. The head is rounded, the rest of the body as a high relief. The head, the only human element whose ears are those of a bull, has a man's face with a beard with precisely worked out features. The eyes are expressive, the thick eyebrows above a protruding nose. The friendly mouth is covered with a thin mustache. A curly beard covers the jaw and chin, while the hair falls down to the shoulder, framing the face. The human head wears a star-adorned tiara , flanked by a pair of horns and finished with a row of feathers.
The body, its anatomy reproduced very precisely, is that of a bull: the animal has five legs rather than four, so that when viewed from the front it stands still and when viewed from the side it walks. The wings of a bird of prey rise from the shoulders, only one of which is visible above the back. Wide stripes with curls cover the chest, stomach, rump and trunk. The tail is very long and curly at the end. An inscription of two stripes between the hind legs of the bull praises the ruler by repeating his virtues and placing a curse on those who should try to harm the building.
The hero overpowers a lion
Lion-taming spirits (often identified with the hero Gilgamesh ) were part of a complex architectural and decorative system governed by artistic and religious criteria. They symbolized divine and royal power and the strength that emanated from them, protected the palace and ensured the continued power of the ruler.
With a height of over 5 meters, the sculpture represents a figure strangling a lion. The ghost or hero who overwhelms the lion is shown frontally. This is rare in Assyrian art and has only been applied to a being who plays a magical role. In his right hand the genius holds a ceremonial weapon with a curved blade known as a "harpe", a royal weapon. He wears a short tunic , over it a large fringed cloak that covers one leg and exposes the other. Eye contact with the viewer has a magical effect. Its head is almost round, the eyes, once brightly colored, were intended to hypnotize the visitor. His hair and beard resemble that of Assyrian dignitaries and that of the king. The hero wears a bracelet with a rosette in the middle. The lion lifts its head and shows its teeth. Its mouth is stylized with a series of radial folds.
Often identified as the hero Gilgamesh , who was both a legendary figure and a historical King of Uruk , this ghost likely embodies the omnipotence of royal rule: he effortlessly overpowers a wild lion. The contrast between the roaring lion and the unshakable strength of the hero emphasizes his magical power.
This figure is a partial reconstruction of a monumental complex known from the drawings Eugène Flandin made in 1844 during the excavation of the entrance to the throne room of the Palace of Sargon II. The outer facade of the throne room - Facade N - consisted of a frieze that featured a procession of figures and passageways guarded by giant spirits: a pair of winged bulls with human heads and a pair of benevolent genii. The main passage doubled this arrangement: in addition to the bulls in the passage, there were four more along the wall with their heads turned towards the visitor. Between each pair was a lion-taming spirit. One of these figures was sent to the Louvre by Paul-Émile Botta.
Facades
The set of ten bulls and two heroes, a royal heraldic landmark, was specially created for the facade of the throne room in the palace of Sargon II. All of these facades, built on the high terrace of the palace overlooking the city, were clearly visible from afar and testified to the king's greatness.
Removal of the finds
At the end of October 1844, Botta thought his excavations were complete and finished the work. Eugène Flandin's work, which had to be carried out on the spot, was also completed, and Flandin began his return trip to Paris on November 9th.
Botta made copies of the remaining inscriptions. They were later lithographed and partially compared with the copies brought to Paris . Since the text could not be read, errors occurred when copying, which is why the parallel texts are also incomplete or reproduced in the wrong order.
Botta had now had the selected items packed for shipment to Paris, as the efforts of the French consul in Constantinople had given him a free hand to ship the selected items to France.
But now there was neither the necessary equipment nor workers experienced in removal. The blocks had to be transported over a distance of four miles, some of them weighing 2 to 3 tons. Despite some fruitless attempts, he could not give up hope. There weren't any boxes that were strong enough. He was forced to resort to the simplest means. He covered the surface of the reliefs with beams, which were fastened with screws to the corresponding piece of wood that was on the opposite side of the stone. It turned out that this protection was sufficient.
What about the winged bulls, each weighing 16 tons? Botta had them "sawed up", they say.
It was also difficult to build carts that were strong enough to move the blocks. Botta even had to set up a forge to strengthen the car axles. For this he had men brought from Kurdistan . It took another 6 weeks for the project to succeed. Now the wagons had to be pulled. The pasha put some buffalo at his disposal. However, the wagon wheels got stuck in the mud. In the end, Botta needed 200 men to move the heavy pieces and to load them onto Keleks on the river Khauser (Khoser), which flows into the Tigris near Mosul , which were to take them to Basra. It was now the rainy season and the rivers were flooding, so that the heavily laden Keleks could be transported.
The duration of the descent from Mosul to Baghdad depended on the water level and the wind. In summer, when the current is weaker, adverse winds often force the raftsmen to stay for days. In the spring, when the water level is at its highest due to the snowmelt, it is estimated that around 4 to 5 days are expected, in autumn 9 to 12 days. The gradient from Mosul to Baghdad is about 210 m over a distance of about 450 km.
Later activity and death
On May 1, 1847, in the presence of King Louis-Philippe I, the first museum of Assyrian art in Europe was opened with the findings of Paul-Emile Botta. Two galleries in the north wing of the Cour Carrée in the Louvre were inaugurated.
Austen Henry Layard met Botta in Paris in 1847 on his return trip to England. He introduced him to Jules Mohl. Mohl arranged that Layard could give a lecture on his discoveries in Nimrud and Ninive in the Societé asiatique . Botta left Paris shortly afterwards to go to Jerusalem.
After the revolution of 1848 the royalist Botta was transferred to Jerusalem as a punishment. Gustave Flaubert met a bitter man there: "A man in ruin, a man of ruins, in the city of ruins, he denies everything and gives me the impression that he hates everyone when they have not died."
A commission made up of Raoul Rochette , Jean Antoine Letronne , Charles Lenormant , Jules Mohl , Jean-Louis Burnouf , Lajard, Guigniaut, Jean-Auguste Ingres and Lebas was commissioned to prepare the publication of a magnificent archaeological work, which soon after came under Botta's special care the title: "Monuments de Nineveh, découverts et décrits par Botta, mesurés et dessinés par E. Flandin" (Paris 1847–50, 5 vols .; reprint 1972) was published. This magnificent edition cost 1,800 francs. For this reason alone, Botta's book never achieved the widespread distribution that Austen Henry Layard later achieved with his books - although the exhibition of his finds in the Louvre was a sensation. The first two volumes of the work contain the panels on architecture and sculpture, the third and fourth the inscriptions, and the fifth the text. The "Inscriptions découvertes à Khorsabad" (Paris 1848) were an inexpensive copy of the 220 inscription panels, which, however, only interested experts.
Botta was in Jerusalem when his work was presented by the commission in Paris. Jules Mohl did not answer any of his letters. It was not until 1851 that the French excavations in Assyria were resumed under Victor Place .
Botta went to Jerusalem in 1848 as the French consul general. In September 1851 he was sent again to Constantinople to negotiate with the Porte about the Church of the Holy Sepulcher . However, the negotiations failed because, according to Botta, " Tsar Nikolaus I showed his big teeth and ours are very small". In 1857 Botta became the French consul general in Tripoli (in today's Lebanon ), where he remained until 1868. That year he had to return to France due to his poor health.
Paul Emile Botta died in Achères near Poissy on March 29, 1870.
Fonts
- "Observations sur les habitants de l'île Sandwich" and "Observations diverses faites en mer" . In: Nouvelles annales du voyage , 32, 1831, pp. 129-176. English translation: John Francis Bricca 1952, EC Jr Knowlton 1984.
- Extrait d'une exploration au mont Saber dans l'Arabie méridionale . In: Bulletin de la Société de geographie, 1839, pp. 369-381.
- Relation d'un voyage dans l'Yémen entrepris en 1837 pour le Museum d'histoire naturelle de Paris . Benjamin Duprat, Paris 1841.
- Lettres à MJ Mohl . In: Journal asiatique , May 1843 to February 1845.
- Lettres de M. Botta sur ses découvertes à Khorsabad près de Nineveh . publiées par MJ Mohl, membre de l'Institut. Imprimerie royale, Paris 1845.
- Mémoire sur l'écriture cunéiforme assyrienne . In: Journal asiatique , May 1845 - May 1847.
- Lettre à M. Letronne sur quelques noms propres contenus dans les inscriptions de Khorsabad . In: Revue archéologique , Volume 4, Part 2, 1847, pp. 465–466.
- Monument de Ninive, découvert et décrit by MPE Botta, mesuré et dessiné by E. Flandin . 5 volumes. Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1848–1850. Reprinted in 1972
- Lettres de M. Botta sur ses découvertes à Nineveh I . In: Journal asiatique . 4th Series, Volume 2, July – August 1843 ( online ).
- Lettres de M. Botta sur ses découvertes à Nineveh II . In: Journal asiatique . 4th Series, Volume 2, September – October 1843 ( online ).
- Lettres de M. Botta sur ses découvertes à Nineveh III . In: Journal asiatique . 4th Series, Volume 3, January – February 1844 ( online ).
- Lettres de M. Botta sur ses découvertes à Nineveh IV . In: Journal asiatique . 4th Series, Volume 3, June 1844 ( online ).
- Lettres de M. Botta sur ses découvertes à Nineveh V . In: Journal asiatique . 4th Series, Volume 4, September – October 1844 ( online ).
literature
- Jean Viali: Botta et la découverte de Nineveh . Paris 1914.
◾ Elisabet Fontan, Nicole Chevalier Nicole (eds.): De Khorsabad à Paris. La Découverte des Assyria . Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris 1994.
Web links
- Literature by and about Paul-Émile Botta in the catalog of the German National Library
- Annie Caubert: Botta, Paul-Émile. In: Dictionnaire critique des historiens de l'art actifs en France de la Révolution à la Première Guerre mondiale
- Botta father and son in Meyer Konversationslexikon
- NYPL “Monument de Nineveh”
- Journal asiatique
- More books by Botta
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Botta, Paul Emile . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 3, Bibliogr. Inst., Leipzig / Vienna 1988, p. 266 .
- ↑ Annie Caubet, in: Dictionnaire critique des historiens de l'art . December 19, 2008
- ^ Relation d'un Voyage dans l'Yémen - Introduction
- ↑ M. Botta's Letters on the Discoveries at Nineveh
- ↑ James Silk Buckingham: The buried city of the East, Nineveh: a narrative of the discoveries of Mr. Layard and M. Botta at Nimroud and Khorsabad . National Illustrated Library, London 1881, pp. 58-61.
- ^ A b James Silk Buckingham, The buried city of the East, Nineveh: a narrative of the discoveries of Mr. Layard and M. Botta at Nimroud and Khorsabad . National Illustrated Library, London 1881, pp. 61–63.
- ↑ Frieze of the Transportation of Timber ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the Louvre
- ↑ Taureau androcéphale ailé ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the Louvre
- ↑ The Hero Overpowering a Lion ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the Louvre
- ^ Hugo Winkler: The cuneiform texts Sargons . Eduard Pfeiffer publisher, Leipzig 1889
- ↑ James Silk Buckingham: The buried city of the East, Nineveh: a narrative of the discoveries of Mr. Layard and M. Botta at Nimroud and Khorsabad . National Illustrated Library, London 1881, p. 67.
- ^ Max von Oppenheim : From the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf . Volume 2, Verlag Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1900, pp. 195-196 ( online ).
- ^ Rainer Vollkommer: New great moments of archeology . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-406-55058-4 , p. ???.
- ^ André Parrot: Centenaire de la fondation du "Musée Assyrien", au Musée du Louvre . In: Syria . 25, 3-4, 1946. pp. 173-184 ( online ).
- ↑ Monument de Nineveh ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Botta, Paul-Émile |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French doctor, explorer and Near Eastern archaeologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 6, 1802 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Turin |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 29, 1870 |
| Place of death | Achères (Yvelines) near Poissy |