Paul-Émile Botta
Encyclopedia
Paul-Émile Botta was a French scientist who served as Consul
in Mosul
(then in the Ottoman Empire
, now in Iraq
) from 1842.
, Italy
, on December 6, 1802. His father was Italian historian Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta
(1766–1837). In 1820 they moved to Paris
where he studied under Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville
.
Le Heros under Captain Auguste Bernard Duhaut-Cilly (1790–1849) left Le Havre
April 8, 1826 and sailed south through the Atlantic Ocean
, stopping in Rio de Janeiro
and around Cape Horn
. They traveled up the coast stopping at Callao
, Mexico
, and Alta California
. Jean Baptiste Rives
(1793–1833), the former secretary of the Kingdom of Hawaii
, had convinced investors from the family of Jacques Laffitte
to finance the voyage to promote trade to California and Hawaii, but Rives disappeared along with some of the cargo.
After visiting the Hawaiian Islands
they reached China
on December 27, 1828. In late July, 1829, the Heros returned to Le Havre.
On January 5, 1830 he defended his doctor's thesis. In 1831 he sailed to Cairo
where he met Benjamin Disraeli. Some historians think the French traveler Marigny in Disraeli's novel Contarini Fleming was based on Botta.
Botta was sent to Yemen on behalf of the Paris Natural History Museum in 1836. He made a collection of plants in Yemen. His plant collection,therefore,is in Paris. it was a very important collection of plants overlooked by most botanists. He was not a botanist. Many of his plants e.g. Cichorium bottae Defl., Arisaema bottae Schott., Vernonia bottae Jaub. & Spach. have been named in order to honour him. Source: Wood,J.R.I.. 1997.A Handbook of Yemen Flora. Royal Botanical Garden,Kew. 1999. ( S.A. Chaudhary,Baulkham Hills, NSW, Australia)
Botta arrived in Mosul early in 1842, and tried to collect antiquities, but there was very little to be had, and Botta himself laments that Rich had swept up and carried off everything. He then turned his attention to excavating, and was anxious to make his first attempt at Nabi Yunus, where Rich had seen so much ancient building and sculpture, and acquired so many antiquities. But the Pasha of Mosul and the authorities of the Mosque of Jonah would not allow any part of that mound to be disturbed.
Botta decided to begin work at Kuyunjik. He started digging in December, 1842, and worked steadily for six weeks, but the results he obtained were few, and besides inscribed bricks and some small and unimportant objects, he found nothing. He carried on his excavations at his own expense, and as his means were small he began to wonder if it were worth while continuing the work. Whilst his men were digging they were watched by many people from the town and country round about, and they all wondered at the care with which every brick and fragment of alabaster were set aside to be kept. One day, when Botta was examining a number of such fragments, a Christian from the village of Khorsabad, by trade a dyer, asked him why he preserved such things. When the dyer heard that he was digging for alabaster slabs with figures sculptured upon them, he told Botta that he ought to come to his village, where they frequently dug up such things.
In no very hopeful spirit Botta sent two or three men to dig at Khorsabad on March 2oth, 1843, and three days later they came upon the top of a wall, one side of which was covered with sculptured alabaster bas-reliefs. A week's work showed Botta that he had discovered the remains of a huge Assyrian palace, containing a large number of chambers and corridors, all the walls of which were lined with slabs bearing sculptured representations of gods and kings, and battles, and religious ceremonies. Side by side with these representations were long inscriptions in the cuneiform character. Boota wrote: "What can all this mean? Who built this structure? In what century did he live? To what nation did he belong? Are these walls telling me their tales of joy and woe? Is this beautiful cuneiformed character a language? I know not. I can read their glory and their victories in their figures, but their story, their age, their blood, is to me a mystery. Their remains mark the fall of a glorious and a brilliant past, but of a past known not to a living man."
Botta sent despatch after despatch to his patron Mohl, and, thinking that he had discovered Nineveh, he announced to him that "Niniveh est retrouvé". It was not Nineveh that he had discovered, but the palace of Sargon II, King of Assyria, B.C. 721-705. The French government, highly gratified at the surprising success of its consul, supplied him with ample means for further research as well as the artist Eugène Flandin to document Botta's discoveries. In 1845, having completely cleared out Khorsabad, he returned to France with a magnificent collection of Assyrian sculptures and cuneiform inscriptions. The Louvre's Assyrian display opened to the public in the presence of King Louis-Philippe on May 1, 1847. Botta's discoveries aroused the whole archaeological and historical world with enthusiasm. A tremendous impulse was given to the study of the Orient. Due to the French Revolution in 1848 Botta could not much profit of his fame. In 1846 he became French consul in Jerusalem and from 1857–1868 consul in Tripoli. Due to his bad health he returned to France. He died on April 17, 1870 in Achères near Poissy.
In 1855, Victor Place, Botta's successor tried to send finds from Kish
, Khorsabad, Nimrud
and from Assurbanipal's palace in Niniveh, 235 cases all in all, from Mosul
down the Tigris
and the Shatt al-Arab to Basra
, where they were to be loaded on a ship bound to Paris
. One barge and four rafts were used, the rafts transported two human headed winged bulls and two winged Genii as well as other works of art. All the vessels were overloaded, and during the journey they were attacked several times by "Arab pirates". On March 21 or March 23, after passing the toll station at Zejeyyak (Zecheiya), the barge was rammed by pirates and sunk, "one and a half hours downriver from Al-Qurna", on the left bank of the river.
One raft, laden with a winged bull
, later sank in the middle of the Shatt al-Arab near Kout el Fiengoui. Only two rafts reached Basra. The finds which were brought to Europe are in the Louvre
and the British Museum
today.
Several attempts to recover the boats during 1855 failed. Among the lost artifacts is, for example, the famous relief depicting the sack of the Urartian
town of Musasir
during Sargons's 8th campaign. The palace of Sargon II, near to sites explored by Botta and Place, would later be excavated by Edward Chiera
during 1928 - 1929.
in the 1820s and 1830s as well as in Mesopotamia. The rubber boa
(Charina bottae), a Western United States
endemic, is named in his honor.
Botta's pocket gopher
described by Joseph Fortuné Théodore Eydoux
and Paul Gervais
commemorates his name.
Botta died in Achères
, France on March 29, 1870.
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
in Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
(then in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, now in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
) from 1842.
Life
He was born Paolo Emiliano Botta in TurinTurin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, on December 6, 1802. His father was Italian historian Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta
Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta
Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta was an Italian historian.He was born at San Giorgio Canavese in Piedmont. He studied medicine at the University of Turin, and obtained his doctors degree when about twenty years of age...
(1766–1837). In 1820 they moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
where he studied under Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville
Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville
Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville was a French zoologist and anatomist.Blainville was born at Arques, near Dieppe. In about 1796 he went to Paris to study painting, but he ultimately devoted himself to natural history, and attracted the attention of Georges Cuvier, for whom he occasionally...
.
Voyage around the world
Botta was selected to ne naturalist on a voyage around the world. Although he had no formal medical training, he also served as the ship surgeon.Le Heros under Captain Auguste Bernard Duhaut-Cilly (1790–1849) left Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
April 8, 1826 and sailed south through the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, stopping in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
and around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
. They traveled up the coast stopping at Callao
Callao
Callao is the largest and most important port in Peru. The city is coterminous with the Constitutional Province of Callao, the only province of the Callao Region. Callao is located west of Lima, the country's capital, and is part of the Lima Metropolitan Area, a large metropolis that holds almost...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
. Jean Baptiste Rives
Jean Baptiste Rives
Jean Baptiste Rives was a French adventurer who served in the court of the Kingdom of Hawaii. His first name was sometimes spelled John and last name Reeves by English speakers. Some sources give other middle names.-Life:...
(1793–1833), the former secretary of the Kingdom of Hawaii
Kingdom of Hawaii
The Kingdom of Hawaii was established during the years 1795 to 1810 with the subjugation of the smaller independent chiefdoms of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lānai, Kauai and Niihau by the chiefdom of Hawaii into one unified government...
, had convinced investors from the family of Jacques Laffitte
Jacques Laffitte
Jacques Laffitte was a French banker and politician.-Biography:Laffitte was born at Bayonne, one of the ten children of a carpenter....
to finance the voyage to promote trade to California and Hawaii, but Rives disappeared along with some of the cargo.
After visiting the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
they reached China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
on December 27, 1828. In late July, 1829, the Heros returned to Le Havre.
On January 5, 1830 he defended his doctor's thesis. In 1831 he sailed to Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
where he met Benjamin Disraeli. Some historians think the French traveler Marigny in Disraeli's novel Contarini Fleming was based on Botta.
Botta was sent to Yemen on behalf of the Paris Natural History Museum in 1836. He made a collection of plants in Yemen. His plant collection,therefore,is in Paris. it was a very important collection of plants overlooked by most botanists. He was not a botanist. Many of his plants e.g. Cichorium bottae Defl., Arisaema bottae Schott., Vernonia bottae Jaub. & Spach. have been named in order to honour him. Source: Wood,J.R.I.. 1997.A Handbook of Yemen Flora. Royal Botanical Garden,Kew. 1999. ( S.A. Chaudhary,Baulkham Hills, NSW, Australia)
Middle East
The credit of beginning archaeological research at Kuyunjik belongs to Botta, whom the French Government appointed Consul at Mosul in 1841-2. Before he left Paris to take up his duties he had several interviews with Julius Mohl, the eminent Orientalist, who pointed out to him that Mosul was the centre of a district of great historical and archaeological importance, and urged him to make good use of the splendid opportunity which he would enjoy for collecting antiquities, and even for making excavations on his own account. Mohl had read Claudius Rich's works, and realized clearly that the author had found the exact site of the ruins of Nineveh, and he felt that priceless archaeological treasures lay buried there and it was said that Botta's appointment as Consul at Mosul was due entirely to the influence and activity of Mohl, who persuaded the Government and the learned Societies of Paris that a French Consul at Mosul could do what a British Consul at Baghdad had done, i.e., make large collections of Oriental manuscripts, cuneiform tablets, etc.Botta arrived in Mosul early in 1842, and tried to collect antiquities, but there was very little to be had, and Botta himself laments that Rich had swept up and carried off everything. He then turned his attention to excavating, and was anxious to make his first attempt at Nabi Yunus, where Rich had seen so much ancient building and sculpture, and acquired so many antiquities. But the Pasha of Mosul and the authorities of the Mosque of Jonah would not allow any part of that mound to be disturbed.
Botta decided to begin work at Kuyunjik. He started digging in December, 1842, and worked steadily for six weeks, but the results he obtained were few, and besides inscribed bricks and some small and unimportant objects, he found nothing. He carried on his excavations at his own expense, and as his means were small he began to wonder if it were worth while continuing the work. Whilst his men were digging they were watched by many people from the town and country round about, and they all wondered at the care with which every brick and fragment of alabaster were set aside to be kept. One day, when Botta was examining a number of such fragments, a Christian from the village of Khorsabad, by trade a dyer, asked him why he preserved such things. When the dyer heard that he was digging for alabaster slabs with figures sculptured upon them, he told Botta that he ought to come to his village, where they frequently dug up such things.
In no very hopeful spirit Botta sent two or three men to dig at Khorsabad on March 2oth, 1843, and three days later they came upon the top of a wall, one side of which was covered with sculptured alabaster bas-reliefs. A week's work showed Botta that he had discovered the remains of a huge Assyrian palace, containing a large number of chambers and corridors, all the walls of which were lined with slabs bearing sculptured representations of gods and kings, and battles, and religious ceremonies. Side by side with these representations were long inscriptions in the cuneiform character. Boota wrote: "What can all this mean? Who built this structure? In what century did he live? To what nation did he belong? Are these walls telling me their tales of joy and woe? Is this beautiful cuneiformed character a language? I know not. I can read their glory and their victories in their figures, but their story, their age, their blood, is to me a mystery. Their remains mark the fall of a glorious and a brilliant past, but of a past known not to a living man."
Botta sent despatch after despatch to his patron Mohl, and, thinking that he had discovered Nineveh, he announced to him that "Niniveh est retrouvé". It was not Nineveh that he had discovered, but the palace of Sargon II, King of Assyria, B.C. 721-705. The French government, highly gratified at the surprising success of its consul, supplied him with ample means for further research as well as the artist Eugène Flandin to document Botta's discoveries. In 1845, having completely cleared out Khorsabad, he returned to France with a magnificent collection of Assyrian sculptures and cuneiform inscriptions. The Louvre's Assyrian display opened to the public in the presence of King Louis-Philippe on May 1, 1847. Botta's discoveries aroused the whole archaeological and historical world with enthusiasm. A tremendous impulse was given to the study of the Orient. Due to the French Revolution in 1848 Botta could not much profit of his fame. In 1846 he became French consul in Jerusalem and from 1857–1868 consul in Tripoli. Due to his bad health he returned to France. He died on April 17, 1870 in Achères near Poissy.
In 1855, Victor Place, Botta's successor tried to send finds from Kish
Kish (Sumer)
Kish is modern Tell al-Uhaymir , and was an ancient city of Sumer. Kish is located some 12 km east of Babylon, and 80 km south of Baghdad ....
, Khorsabad, Nimrud
Nimrud
Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris in modern Ninawa Governorate Iraq. In ancient times the city was called Kalḫu. The Arabs called the city Nimrud after the Biblical Nimrod, a legendary hunting hero .The city covered an area of around . Ruins of the city...
and from Assurbanipal's palace in Niniveh, 235 cases all in all, from Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
down the Tigris
Tigris
The Tigris River is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of southeastern Turkey through Iraq.-Geography:...
and the Shatt al-Arab to Basra
Basra
Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...
, where they were to be loaded on a ship bound to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. One barge and four rafts were used, the rafts transported two human headed winged bulls and two winged Genii as well as other works of art. All the vessels were overloaded, and during the journey they were attacked several times by "Arab pirates". On March 21 or March 23, after passing the toll station at Zejeyyak (Zecheiya), the barge was rammed by pirates and sunk, "one and a half hours downriver from Al-Qurna", on the left bank of the river.
One raft, laden with a winged bull
Lamassu
A Lamassu , is a protective deity, often depicted with a bull or lion's body, eagle's wings, and human's head. In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity...
, later sank in the middle of the Shatt al-Arab near Kout el Fiengoui. Only two rafts reached Basra. The finds which were brought to Europe are in the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
and the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
today.
Several attempts to recover the boats during 1855 failed. Among the lost artifacts is, for example, the famous relief depicting the sack of the Urartian
Urartu
Urartu , corresponding to Ararat or Kingdom of Van was an Iron Age kingdom centered around Lake Van in the Armenian Highland....
town of Musasir
Musasir
Muṣaṣir , in Urartian Ardini was an ancient city of Urartu, attested in Assyrian sources of the 9th and 8th centuries BC....
during Sargons's 8th campaign. The palace of Sargon II, near to sites explored by Botta and Place, would later be excavated by Edward Chiera
Edward Chiera
Edward Chiera was an Italian-American archaeologist, Assyriologist, and scholar of religions and linguistics.Born in Rome, Italy, in 1885, Chiera trained as a theologian at the Crozer Theological Seminary . He completed his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania...
during 1928 - 1929.
Work in other fields
Botta was also a naturalist. He collected mammals, birds, reptiles and insects in CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the 1820s and 1830s as well as in Mesopotamia. The rubber boa
Rubber Boa
The Rubber Boa is a snake in the family Boidae that is native to the Western United States.-Taxonomy:The Rubber Boa is a snake in the family Boidae and genus Charina. The name Charina is from the Greek for graceful or delightful, and the name bottae honors Dr. Paolo E. Botta, an Italian ship's...
(Charina bottae), a Western United States
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
endemic, is named in his honor.
Botta's pocket gopher
Botta's pocket gopher
Botta's pocket gopher is a pocket gopher native to western North America, from California east to Texas and from southern Utah and Colorado south to Mexico...
described by Joseph Fortuné Théodore Eydoux
Joseph Fortuné Théodore Eydoux
Joseph Fortuné Théodore Eydoux Joseph Fortuné Théodore Eydoux Joseph Fortuné Théodore Eydoux (1802 - 1841 was a French naturalist.Eydoux and Louis François Auguste Souleyet were surgeon naturalists on the expedition ship "La Favorite" which made a circumnavigation in 1830-32 captained by Cyrille...
and Paul Gervais
Paul Gervais
For the Canadian parliamentarian see Paul Mullins GervaisPaul Gervais full name François Louis Paul Gervaise was a French palaeontologist and entomologist.-Biography:...
commemorates his name.
Botta died in Achères
Achères, Yvelines
Achères is a commune in the Yvelines department in north-central France. It is located from the center of Paris.The commune of Achères lies on the south bank of the Seine in a loop of the river, on the edge of the Forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye...
, France on March 29, 1870.
Further reading
- Paul-Émile Botta and M. E. Flandin, Monuments de Niniveh (Paris 1849-1859)
- Glyn Daniel, A short history of archaeology (London, Thames and Hudson 1981).
- M. Pillet, Khorsabad. Les découvertes des V. Place en Assyrie (Paris 1918). (French) (translation of French)
External links
- Botta in the Louvre
- http://www.google.com/custom?domains=Bible-history.com&q=Khorsabad&sa=Search&sitesearch=Bible-history.com&client=pub-4181641233947766&forid=1&channel=5132948759&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23CC9900%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23CC9900%3BVLC%3ACC9900%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3A000000%3BLBGC%3A000000%3BALC%3AFFCC00%3BLC%3AFFCC00%3BT%3ACCCCCC%3BGFNT%3A666666%3BGIMP%3A666666%3BLH%3A50%3BLW%3A200%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2FKhorsabad]