The historical context of the sumerian discoveries
2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 61; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1468-0033.2009.01678.x
ISSN1468-0033
Autores Tópico(s)Archaeological Research and Protection
ResumoAbstractIn 1877 the French consul at Bassorah, Ernest de Sarzec, initiated excavations on the site of Tello in southern Iraq. The artefacts, reliefs and sculptures found there bore inscriptions in an unknown language, bringing about the rediscovery of the Sumerians. Captain Gaston Cros proceeded with work on the site until 1909. Troubles in the region then worsened, culminating in the outbreak of the First World War. Between 1909 and 1924 looting took place on a grand scale. Major artefacts, often with inscriptions, came into the possession of the dealer Gejou. Between 1924 and 1925 a series of statues of the Sumerian dynasty, including the statue of Ur‐Ningirsu, were sold to various European and American institutions or collectors. In 1974 the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York signed an agreement to the effect that the two institutions would reunite the head and body of the Sumerian statue and take turns to exhibit the whole artefact every four years. Notes1. J. Aruz (ed.) (2003) Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium BC from the Mediterranean to the Indus. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. [Google Scholar] 2. F. Thureau‐dangin (1924) Monuments et Mémoires, Fondation E. Piot, XXVII. [Google Scholar] 3. Joseph Brummer to René Dussaud, keeper of the ANE Department of Ancient Near Eastern Antiquities in the Louvre, 28-June 1935 (Louvre, DAO archives).4. Encyclopédie Tel , p. 241.5. Routinely every four years, but by common consent the calendar is flexible.6. P.E. Botta and E. Flandin (184950) Monuments de Ninive, I–V, Paris; [Google Scholar] see E. Fontan and N. Chevalier (eds), 'De Khorsabad à Paris', La découverte des Assyriens, Paris, 1994. [Google Scholar] 7. A.H. Layard (18489) Nineveh and its Remains, London; [Google Scholar] see J. Curtis, and J.E. Reade (eds) (1995) Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British Museum, New York: the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Google Scholar] 8. See M. Pohl (1999) Vom Stambul nach Bagdad. Die Geschichte einer berühmten Eisenbahn, Munich and Zurich. [Google Scholar] 9. L. Heuzey and E. De sarzec (18841912) Découvertes en Chaldée, Paris: Leroux. [Google Scholar] 10. 'The Arabs have become so threatening, the attacks at night so daring, that fighting back was no longer a possibility, and it became necessary for me to raise the tents. The majority of the pieces or fragments that I found have been stolen from me and I have had to buy them back.' Cited in A. Parrot. Mari, Capitale fabuleuse, Paris, 1974.11. G. Cros, L. Heuzey and F. Thureau‐dangin (191014) Nouvelles fouilles de Tello, Paris: Leroux. [Google Scholar] 12. H. De genouillac (193436) Fouilles de Telloh, I‐II, Paris; [Google Scholar] A. Parrot (1948) Tello: vingt campagnes de fouilles, Paris. [Google Scholar] 13. C.E. Suter (2000) Gudea's Temple Building: The Representation of an Early Mesopotamian Ruler in Text and Image, Cuneiform Monographs 17, Groeningen. [Google Scholar] 14. See N. Chevalier. La recherche archéologique française au Moyen‐Orient, 1842–1947, Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 2003. [Google Scholar] 15. On the role of Osman Hamdi Bey (1842–1910), founder and first Director of the Istanbul Archaeological Museum, see W. M. K. Shaw, Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology and Visualisation of History in the Late Ottoman Empire, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. [Google Scholar]16. F. Johansen, 'Statues of Gudea Ancient and Modern', Copenhagen Studies in Assyriology, Vol. 6 (Copenhagen, 1978). [Google Scholar]
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