Botta, Paul Emile

(1802-1870)

   A French diplomat and archaeologist who is sometimes called the world's first As syriologist because he was the first person to excavate an Assyrian palace. While working in an official capacity for the French government in iraq, Botta was drawn to some of the spectacular ruins in the area. In 1842 he began digging at the site of ancient Nineveh, although he did not know the city's true identity at first. The following year he abandoned that dig and began excavating at the site of Dur-Sharukkin (or Khorsabad), incorrectly thinking that it was Nineveh. it did not take him long to bring to light a palace of the Assyrian monarch Sargon II. In the years that followed, Botta shipped numerous statues from the palace back to Paris, where many are still on display in the Louvre Museum. Botta's work proved an inspiration to other young Europeans fascinated by ancient Mesopotamia, including the great Austen Henry Layard.

   See also: Dur-Sharukkin; Layard, Austen Henry; Nineveh