(1802–1870)
French doctor and archaeologist who conducted the first large-scale excavations in Mesopotamia. Employed as consular agent in Ottoman Mosul, he discovered DurSharrukin, the palace of Sargon IIat Khorsabad (Nimrud) in 1843, having found the mounds of nearby Kuyunjik (Nineveh) not promising. Generously financed by the French government, he managed to unearth most of the palace by 1845. His shipment of antiquities, including the monumental human-headed bulls and lions, was displayed in the Louvre, and his lavish publication of Monuments de Ninive, illustrated by Eugene Flandin, popularized the achievements of Assyrian art.
Historical Dictionary of Mesopotamia. EdwART. 2012.