The European Appropriation of Ancient Iraq (1800s)

A mustached man is seated in a chair, with his body turned to his right and his face toward the camera. He wears a turban and several long-sleeved garments.
A bearded man is seated at a table covered with books, papers, and miscellaneous small objects. Books and papers are stacked at his right. Behind him are multiple shelves filled with books.
In the foreground is a sandy field with several rows of low vegetation. The field extends to a stepped brick wall, behind which are palm trees, a tower, and two domed buildings.
Layard_Lithograph_Quyunjik_1853_d
Frontal view of a man with mutton-chop sideburns wearing a shirt, bowtie, jacket, and pants. His left hand is on his hip, and his right extends down to hold a cane.

Hormuzd Rassam:
Iraq’s First Archaeologist

A mustached man is seated in a chair, with his body turned to his right and his face toward the camera. He wears a turban and several long-sleeved garments.

Hormuzd Rassam photographed by Philip Henry Delamotte, ca. 1854. Courtesy of Cyngor Abertawe: Casgliad Amgueddfa Abertawe. Swansea Council: Swansea Museum Collection.

Hormuzd Rassam (1826–1910) was born in Mosul, Iraq, to a Chaldean Christian family who had close connections with the British; his elder brother, Christian, was the British vice-consul in Mosul. At 17 years old, Rassam met Austen Henry Layard, a British archaeologist, who was immediately impressed with Rassam’s command of English and hired him as paymaster, translator, and overseer of the excavations at Nimrud. He became indispensable and proved himself to be a skilled excavator and archaeologist. Layard later invited Rassam to Britain to study at Magdalen College in Oxford, hoping to instill in him British culture and education, though he would return home before completing his studies.

Two-page spread from a book. On the left is a photograph of a seated, bearded man holding a drawing and with a second drawing at his feet. He turns sideways to gaze out toward the camera.

Title page of Assur and the Land of Nimrod (1897) and frontispiece photograph of Rassam holding a folio template of the Assyrian bronze fixtures from the Balawat Gate, which he discovered. Harvard University Library.

Rassam went on to excavate numerous sites for the British Museum, such as the Sun Temple at Sippar and the Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh. Like his mentor, Layard, Rassam also went into diplomacy, working as an official at the port of Aden in Yemen for the East India Company (1861) and later as a British envoy to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) (1864). Despite his incredible service for the British in both archaeology and diplomacy, his work was often overlooked, appropriated, or maligned by British scholars. This was famously seen in a case where E.A. Wallis Budge, a curator at the British Museum, falsely accused him of looting cuneiform tablets and removed his name from provenance labels in the galleries. Rassam’s memoir, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod (1897), outlines his many accomplishments, but also the frustration he felt toward the British scholars who did not take him seriously and Ottoman officials who treated him as a British foreigner. His career highlights that while he was useful to the British as an “accultured intermediary” between the Ottoman and British, he was never fully accepted in either world. He is present in ISAW’s gallery through a single portrait photograph taken in England, where he is clothed in Ottoman fashion, which spotlights the orientalist British gaze.

Austen Henry Layard:
British Diplomat and Archaeologist

AustenHenryLayard_PassiniPortrait_1891_b

“Sir Austen Henry Layard,” by Ludwig Johann Passini. Watercolor. 1891. NPG 1797. © National Portrait Gallery, London.

Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894) was one of the early excavators of Mesopotamia, but his career in archaeology was closely intertwined with his political ambitions in the British Foreign Office. He became fascinated by the Middle East during his travels in Persia (Iran) and Asia Minor, where he obtained an unofficial role in the British consulate at Constantinople (Istanbul) as the personal assistant to Ambassador Stratford Canning. Though he spent much time traveling and gathering intelligence for the British, Layard was inspired by the discoveries of French archaeologist Paul Émile Botta at the Assyrian site of Nineveh in Iraq and convinced the British ambassador to fund an excavation at nearby Nimrud in 1845-1846. Layard and his superiors recognized that archaeological excavations could be useful in furthering British imperial interests in the Ottoman Empire, through gathering intelligence, exporting British culture and values, and acquiring antiquities for display in Britain.

A bas-relief sculpture showing a side view of a bull with wings and a bearded human head wearing a crown. At right is the drawing of a man, half the height of the sculpture, who wears a robe and holds a staff.

“A Winged Human-headed Lion (Nimroud).” Plate 3 from Austen Henry Layard, The Monuments of Nineveh: From Drawings Made on the Spot. Lithograph from an original drawing by Frederick Charles Cooper. 1849. ISAW: N5380 .L3 1849 Folio. ISAW Checklist no. 14. The Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Together with a young Hormuzd Rassam, Layard’s team unearthed spectacular finds from the Assyrian palaces at Nimrud and later, Nineveh. The team soon had a trove of objects to bring back and display in Britain. Layard hoped that this would further prove himself and result in an official diplomatic posting. However, this was not to be. Eventually he returned to Britain, and in 1848, wrote a two-volume account of his excavations and travels called Nineveh and Its Remains. It was an instant best seller, propelling him into the public spotlight and earning him the titles of “The Ninevite” and “Mr. Bull.” He followed this with the folio volume Monuments of Nineveh, From Drawings Made on the Spot (1849) and another book detailing his second 1849 excavation at Nineveh, titled Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1853). The British craze for Assyria spilled from Layard’s pages and public lectures into popular culture, with images of winged bull men (lamassu) and Assyrian kings appearing on clothing, jewelry, and even porcelain. 

Book page with text indicating the title, author, and publisher as well as an illustration of a gate decorated with winged horses and geometric designs. At the base of the gate are two bearded and winged lions that face toward each other.

Frontispiece of Layard’s Monuments of Nineveh. 1849. The New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Layard’s success finally resulted in a post to the British diplomatic ranks, where he worked as under-secretary of foreign affairs, and then as ambassador to Madrid and Constantinople. His career spotlights that while he had genuine scholarly interests in Iraq’s ancient past, his methods and ambitions—like so many European archeologists in the region at this time—furthered imperialist agendas.

Fredrick Charles Cooper:
The Intentionally Forgotten Artist

At the top is a hilly terrain with a few buildings in the valleys. At the bottom is a long wall. behind which are buildings and hills.

“View of the Mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebbi Yunus and the Remains of the exterior Walls from the North; View of the Mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebbi Yunus and the Remains of the exterior Walls from Mosul.” Plate 70 from second series of Austen Henry Layard, The Monuments of Nineveh: From Drawings Made on the Spot. Lithograph from an original drawing by Frederick Charles Cooper. 1849. ISAW: N5380 .L3 1853 Folio. ISAW Checklist No. 35. The Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

In 1849, Frederick Charles Cooper (1810–1880), an up-and-coming British artist with no archaeological or traveling experience, was appointed by The Trustees of the British Museum to accompany Austen Henry Layard on his second excavation at Nineveh and Nimrud. Cooper produced evocative drawings and watercolors of the Assyrian palace reliefs, but also vibrant scenes from the excavations and landscapes around Nineveh and Mosul. He worked closely with Hormuzd Rassam and developed a friendship with him and his family. His drawings and watercolors were featured in Layard’s publications Monuments of Nineveh, From Drawings Made on the Spot (1849) and Discoveries at Nineveh and Babylon (1853).

However, Cooper was highly disliked by Layard, who spoke of him and his work disparagingly in his diaries. Cooper did not acclimatize well to the heat and excavation lifestyle, which irritated Layard. While Layard did acknowledge Cooper in the introduction to Monuments of Nineveh, he is not mentioned at all in Nineveh and Babylon, despite the fact that the book featured twenty of Cooper’s drawings. Cooper was not invited back to the excavations after 1850 and returned to Britain. There he had a successful career giving lectures about his travels, which included a display of 37 large-scale images he painted. Layard was not pleased with Cooper’s lectures, and was clearly concerned that Cooper was stepping into his spotlight as the presenter of Assyria to the British public. However, Cooper remained friends with Hormuzd Rassam, even going on to paint two portraits of him in 1860 in London—one in Western attire and one in Ottoman style. Cooper’s drawings and watercolors remain a valuable source on the excavations, but he was for a long time a nearly forgotten member of Layard’s team.

At center is a dragon with open jaws flanked on the left by the side view of a standing male and on the right by the side view of a winged standing male holding tridents.

“Bas reliefs at an entrance to a small temple (Nimroud).” Plate 5 from A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh. Lithograph from an original drawing by Frederick Charles Cooper. 1853. ISAW: N5380 .L3 1853 Folio.  ISAW Checklist no. 34. The Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Sixteen colored brick fragments with geometric designs and one partial image of an animal’s head.

“Painted Bricks from the N. W. Palace— Nimroud.” Plate 84 from Austen Henry Layard, The Monuments of Nineveh: From Drawings Made on the Spot. Lithograph from an original drawing by Frederick Charles Cooper. 1849. ISAW Checklist no. 7. The Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

James Felix Jones:
Officer and Cartographer of the East India Company

In the foreground is a sandy field with several rows of low vegetation. The field extends to a stepped brick wall, behind which are palm trees, a tower, and two domed buildings.

Illustration of Sheikh Maruf, Baghdad. Memoirs by Commander James Felix Jones, compiled and edited by R. Hughes Thomas. Bombay: Printed for Govt. at Bombay Education Society's Press, 1857. Wellcome Trust.

James Felix Jones (1813–1878) was a commander in the British Navy and East India Company. As a particularly skilled cartographer, he produced detailed maps of the Persian Gulf and western Asia on his many surveys of the region. These maps include a number of archaeological sites, such as Nimrud, Nineveh, and Samarra, as well as modern cities such as Baghdad.

Three cream-colored maps hang on a light gray wall above a glass covered stand with three images inside

Map of Nineveh (installation view). From James Felix Jones, Memoirs of Baghdad, Kurdistan and Turkish Arabia: Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government, n.s., no. 63. Hand-colored engraving. 1857. ISAW Checklist No. 27. Courtesy of a private collection.

Like Austen Henry Layard, Jones furthered British imperial interests in the region through a combination of military expeditions, business ventures, and scholarly pursuits—including archaeological surveys and excavations. The career officers of the British Navy and East India Company were tasked with bringing territories and economic resources of the rapidly unravelling Ottoman Empire under British sovereignty. These resources included antiquities, which gave the British power to distort the narratives about the region, claiming them as part of European history, remnants of the early progenitors of civilization that were passed to the Greeks and Romans, and ultimately to Europe. Jones conducted a number of missions in the region, including being tasked by the Board of Trustees of the British Museum with mapping the entire Nineveh district. He also worked with Major Henry Rawlinson, a cuneiform scholar and British officer who worked at Persepolis (Iran), in gathering information about the Persian/Ottoman border in 1844. Jones then undertook important surveys and excavations of archaeological sites in Iraq and Kurdistan between 1847 and 1853, including surveying the Sasanian Nahrawan Canal. However, his final post was as a political agent in the Persian Gulf, and it is thought that his detailed maps and knowledge of the region were instrumental in planning the British invasion of Persia in 1856–1857. After this he retired and published a memoir of his travels and surveys, which romanticized his work as the classic Victorian explorer in the exotic East and was illustrated with some of his own drawings.

A series of connected two-story houses with balconies and latticed windows. Each house is separated from the next by a wall that extends above the roofline.

Illustration of riverline houses in Baghdad. James Felix Jones. Memoirs by Commander James Felix Jones, compiled and edited by R. Hughes Thomas. Bombay: Printed for Govt. at Bombay Education Society's Press, 1857. Wellcome Trust.

A steamboat and a smaller boat float in the water. Three other small boats are beached partway. On shore are several buildings backed by palm trees and, in the distance, mountains.

Illustration of a steam boat depot on the Tigris. Memoirs by Commander James Felix Jones, compiled and edited by R. Hughes Thomas. Bombay: Printed for Govt. at Bombay Education Society's Press, 1857. Wellcome Trust.

James Fergusson:
The Man Who Imagined Assyria

Frontal view of a man with mutton-chop sideburns wearing a shirt, bowtie, jacket, and pants. His left hand is on his hip, and his right extends down to hold a cane.

Portrait Photograph of Sir James Fergusson. 1884. State Library of South Australia, B 2382.

James Fergusson (1808­–1886) was a Scottish architectural historian who traveled to India, where he briefly worked for the Scottish shipping company Fairlie, Fergusson and Co. in Calcutta with his brother who was a co-partner of the business. However, he soon moved to Jessore, near Calcutta, where he purchased and profited handsomely from an indigo plantation and factory. Between 1837 and 1839, after selling his business, he traveled around India, where he developed a keen interest in studying ancient Indian architecture, after which he returned and retired in London. There he wrote and published a number of books on Indian and world architectural traditions, filling their pages with his own drawings and reconstructions. Fergusson was also a friend of Layard—unsurprising given their imperial diplomatic and commercial connections—who introduced him to the newly discovered Assyrian palaces. Fergusson became interested in Assyrian architecture and, in consultation with Layard, published Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored (1851), which included architectural plans and drawings of the palaces at Khorsabad, Nineveh, and Nimrud. He also went on to provide reconstructions of the Assyrian palaces in later versions of Layard’s Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1853) and Monuments of Nineveh series, which provided fanciful and idyllic scenes of the Assyrian palaces and cityscapes that often misleadingly combined Assyrian architectural features with those from the later Achaemenid architecture from Persepolis, Iran.

A long wall is decorated on both sides with figural processions at top and chariot races below, as well as geometric designs. Two bearded, winged dragons with human heads stand on either side at the center. Three human figures stand at left, three at the center, and one in the background.

“Hall of the Assyrian Palace Restored.” Plate 2 from Austen Henry Layard’s The Monuments of Nineveh: From Drawings Made on the Spot. Lithograph from an original sketch by James Fergusson, Esq. 1849. ISAW: N5380 .L3 1849 Folio. ISAW Checklist 32. The Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

A wide river with sailboats is lined on the far side by walls and multistoried buildings, and on the near side by people and animals seated on grass and surrounded by trees and shrubs.

“The Palaces of Nimroud Restored.” Plate 1 from Austen Henry Layard’s A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh. Lithograph from an original sketch by James Fergusson, Esq. 1853. ISAW: N5380 .L3 1853 Folio. Checklist no. 30. The Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Fergusson and Layard would go on to work together as advisors for the decoration of a special courtyard at the Crystal Palace in London, a grand world's fair that exhibited the spoils of the British Empire. The so-called “Nineveh Court” was outfitted with replicas of the winged bull men (lamassu) sculptures and palace reliefs brought back by Layard. The display also featured replicas of columns from the Achaemenid palaces at Persepolis (directly replicating Fergusson’s reconstructions in Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored). This fanciful, orientalist courtyard provided the British public with a colorful display of the curiosities of Iraq and Iran. Here the reimagined monuments of Assyria could be admired—while being simultaneously divorced from the landscape and people of Iraq—and appropriated into British and European art historical narratives and stewardship.

In the foreground are the sculpted feet of a monumental statue. In the middle ground is a two-story, columned structure decorated at one corner with the relief sculpture of a bearded griffin wearing a crown. The front panel is decorated with figures and abstract vegetal forms. At the foot of the structure are the sculptures of two reclining animals with human heads that resemble pharaohs wearing headdresses and beards. To the right is scaffolding.
A rectangular pool of water holds large pots of vegetation. Behind the pool is a walkway with three male figures. In the background is a partial view of two-stories of a columned building. Carved in relief on the first level are two facing griffins with human heads, crowned and bearded. Additional griffins are partially visible behind vegetation.

Photographs of the Nineveh Court at Crystal Palace, London, attributed to Philip Henry Delamotte, 1859, Albumen silver print from glass negative. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.100.801 (14a, d). Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005.

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