Loftus, William K.

(1820-1858)

   An English geologist who became an early pioneer of Assyriology when he excavated the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk. Like many other European intellectuals of his day, Loftus hoped that excavations of ancient Mesopotamian cities would reveal artifacts and information that would confirm the authenticity of statements made about the region in the Bible. Building on work already done in the area by Danish scholar Karsten Nie-buhr, Frenchman Paul Emile Botta, and another Englishman, Austen Henry Layard, Loftus searched for the city of Uruk, called Erech in the Old Testament. Loftus suspected that Uruk lay beneath the surface at a site the local Arabs called Warka. Sure enough, Warka did prove to be ancient Uruk, where he uncovered the remains of the city's defensive walls, many still intact and rising to a height of 50 feet (15m). Loftus later excavated the ruins of another Sumerian city, Larsa. There he unearthed a temple of the god Shamash. He published Travels and Researches in Chaldea and Su-siana in 1857, a year before his untimely death.

   See also: Botta, Paul Emile; Layard, Austen Henry; Niebuhr, Karsten