Secrets of Le Marais: A Journey into the Historic and Chic Heart of Paris
Join us on a virtual journey to the most fascinating district in Paris. Together we will discover hidden courtyards, French nobility, and the true stories behind the magnificent facades.
introduction
The year is 1840. The car has not yet been invented, electric light has not yet been discovered, the steel skeleton of the drilling tower has not yet been thrust out of the sand. Mosul is still a colorful city of a thousand nights and nights, with its markets and palaces, its white mosques, the Middle East as it is.
That same year, Louis appointed Philippe, king France, Paul-Émile Botta as French consul in the city of Mosul (present-day Iraq) in the Ottoman Empire.
Paul-Emile Botta was born in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, which was then annexed by France, and was educated in the light of French culture. His father, the Italian historian Carlo Botta, was in his youth an ardent supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French annexation. His French mother died when he was a child. After the end of French rule in Piedmont, his father received French citizenship. French, and was appointed rector of the academy in Rouen, France, where he moved with his son. In Rouen, Paul-Emile Bothe began preparatory studies for medical studies, and at the same time he developed an interest in Middle Eastern cultures and studied Arabic. In 1822, he moved with his father toParis There he continued his studies in science.
In 1826, Botha set out, as a physician and naturalist, on a voyage around the world. The journey lasted three years and ended in July 1829. The voyage crossed oceans, passed along the coasts of Brazil, Mexico, and California, continued to Hawaii, from there to China, and returned to Europe. Botha successfully fulfilled his role as physician, became a figure admired by his crew, and above all, devoted much time to studying nature in the places where the ship docked. At the end of the voyage, Botha returned to his medical studies and in 1830 received a doctorate.
In 1831, Buta sailed to Alexandria, Egypt, with the aim of improving his command of Arabic and studying the land and nature. During his journey, which lasted several years, he acquired a deep acquaintance with the land, its people, and Arab culture. He joined Muhammad Ali's army as a doctor, and as part of this, he continued his tours and studies of the land and nature, collecting findings for The Louvre Museum In Paris.
His deep knowledge of the Levant, his expertise in Arab culture, and his command of the Arabic language were the perfect qualifications for the position of French consul in Mosul. Ostensibly, the new consul was supposed to look after France's political interests, but this remote city was devoid of any diplomatic importance. The real mission assigned to Butte was to excavate around Mosul and find the remains of the ancient city of Nineveh, in the hope that his research would provide new treasures for the Louvre Museum, and would be a fitting continuation of the tradition of French research in the Near East that had begun with the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte's armies in Egypt.
Searching for the buried cities of Mesopotamia
At that time, interest in Assyrian culture and the discovery of the remains of the city of Nineveh increased. It was believed that the remains of Nineveh were buried under the city of Mosul or in its vicinity. Nineveh was one of the later capitals of the Assyrian Empire. Ashur is the name of an ancient Semitic kingdom that existed between the end of the 21st century BC and the end of the 7th century BC, when it was conquered by Babylon.
The Assyrian people – lived in northern Mesopotamia (Greek for “between the rivers = Euphrates and Tigris”), in the area that is today the Kurdish region of Iraq. The spoken language was Semitic, written in cuneiform. The absolute natural shortage of stone and wood for building contributed to the Assyrians’ drive for territorial expansion for the purpose of plundering raw materials and other goods. Thus, Assyria became a vast empire that stretched across the Middle East, including the Kingdom of Israel. Surrounding the empire were vassal states that paid heavy annual tribute to Assyria, such as the Kingdom of Judah and Philistia.
Until the nineteenth century, very few Europeans had reached Mesopotamia. Those who did had to cross arid deserts and contend with marauding bands. And when they finally reached the place attributed to the Garden of Eden of Genesis, the site of the revolting cities of Nineveh and Babylon, they were shocked. The fertile lands of the Bible were a desolate wilderness, the renowned cities were a wasteland of ruins.
It seems that the words of the prophet Zephaniah were fulfilled in them: “He will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, desolate like a wilderness.”
In the 19th century, archaeologists were the vanguard of Europe in the East. Archaeology developed as a science under the auspices of scholars from Britain, France, and Germany. Archaeology accumulated cultural capital that was deposited in the warehouses of the great museums in Paris, London, and Berlin. This cultural capital was a symbol of the European's legitimate claim to all human culture.
Archaeology was not, therefore, merely a curious science, but rather expressed a Western need to control heritage, to take it out of the hands of peoples and tribes who could not understand its true value and meaning.
Paul-Emile Butte in Mosul
Botha's postcards in Mosul in the 19th century resemble a romantic story from fairyland.
Botha had never excavated at any archaeological site, but he was familiar with the monuments of ancient Egypt and spoke fluent Arabic. Now he found himself in a country where almost everything ancient had to be dug out of the ground, not just moved from its place as had happened in Egypt.
1842… The scorching summer in Mosul was unbearable… Buta escapes from this furnace to breathe fresher air on the banks of the Tigris River. In the process, his attention is drawn to the desolate hills across the river. Buta is an educated man. He knows the biblical name Nineveh. In the book “Jonah the Prophet,” the city of Nineveh is at the center of events. “Many, twenty thousand men… and a great multitude.”
The book of Genesis tells us that Nimrod (also called Asshur) built the city in the days of our forefather Abraham. As Buta wanders the brown sand hills, he notices fragments of bricks. He hires a group of natives and begins digging. The first attempt ends unsuccessfully. After a few weeks, the results are zero. Disappointed, he stops the excavation.
He might have kept his hands off further excavations in this area, but he heard a rumor from the locals that ancient columns and bricks were hidden in the village of Dor Shorkin, located about twenty-three kilometers north of Mosul. The consul sent two workers to inspect the area. A week later, the workers returned and announced that they had found walls decorated with carvings of strange animals. Butta jumped on his horse and galloped to the spot. His breath was almost caught at the sight of the reliefs – a rich reward after the first disappointment.
Bota is overjoyed. It was the birth of Assyriology. The building is part of a huge Assyrian palace that emerged into the light of day after a thousand-year hibernation, a historical event of the highest order!
Botha informs Paris of his findings and the government places a financial fund at his disposal. The Sultan grants the necessary license for excavation.
Eugene Flandin, a renowned painter and engraver who specialized in antiquities, was entrusted by the Louvre with the role that is assigned today to the expedition photographers. His impressive pencil faithfully reproduced on paper what was uncovered from the ground. The drawings were added to a magnificent collection called “The Nineveh Monument.”
The lost cities of Mesopotamia were not like the archaeological sites in Greece and Egypt. The Greeks and Egyptians built with fine marble and granite. The Babylonians and Assyrians built with mud bricks. The bricks were dried in the sun and not baked in a kiln, and therefore gradually dissolved in water, eroded by the wind, and crumbled under pressure. Many buildings were rebuilt on their ruins. Thus, an entire city stood on a growing mound.
The first excavators had almost no guidelines for conducting such a dig. Since they were unable to date pottery or read cuneiform, they had no choice but to see what the shovel would turn up.
Six months of excavation yielded treasures never before seen. Winged lions and bulls with human heads, reliefs of gods, humans, and mythological animals rose from the earth. In the heat that blinded the senses, the painter Flandin copied cuneiform letters and figures of animals and humans.
But the beginning of Assyriology originated, as it will become clear later…
What Buta discovered was the capital of Sargon II, the king of Assyria, and not, as he had thought, the city of Nineveh. The mistake was due to the fact that the cuneiform script had not yet been deciphered.
Sargon II was the king of Assyria from 722 to 705 BC. He is considered one of the greatest kings of Assyria and one of the greatest strategists of ancient times.
Sargon II, is associated with the tragic end of the Kingdom of Israel, the Northern Kingdom. During the time of Sargon II, most of the Kingdom of Israel had already been conquered by the kings of Assyria: Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V.
When their armies left the Kingdom of Israel, it was left mortally wounded and weakened by its many exiles. All that remained of Israel was a dwarf state: the mountains of Ephraim and the capital, Samaria.
Sargon II continues the war and conquers Samaria. The people of the Kingdom of Israel and its royal house were exiled and assimilated into the population of foreign lands and never returned to the stage of history. All investigations into the remains of the Ten Tribes have so far yielded no results.
Our knowledge of these events comes from two historical sources. One is the Bible and the other is cuneiform tablets made of stone and clay that were found in an excavation, which record the course of the battles, a thousand kilometers from the site of the terrible events. For centuries, the documents were hidden in the magnificent palaces on the Tigris, until they were uncovered. However, in the time of Botha, cuneiform had not yet been deciphered. The key to cuneiform was only found 15 years later, and the translation of these vast sources took many years.
Botha faced a monumental task – to ship the finds to France. Most of the slabs were so heavy that Botha had to order his workers to saw them off. The pieces were then loaded onto a huge cart, pulled by 300 sweating workers, over 23 kilometers of rough road to the Tigris.
In October 1844, monuments, column blocks, reliefs and inscriptions of Botha set sail on an adventurous journey. The valuable cargo departed from the Shorkin port in boats and barges and sailed down the Tigris. At Basra in the Persian Gulf, the ship “Cormoran” received the valuable property and sailed with it to Europe.
Louvre, the first museum of Assyriology
The antiquities aroused great admiration in Paris. In the magnificent halls of the Louvre, Louis Philippe, King of France, presented the world's first Assyrian collection in a festive ceremony. This is how the event was reported in the press:
"We do not know the real identity of the Assyrian king who arrived on the banks of the Seine. The Louvre opens its doors to him, the palace of the kings of France will be his proper place."
Assyrians are on display at the Louvre
Statues of the lemso (a bull's body with a human head) were placed at the entrance to palaces and temples to protect them, for example at the entrance gates to Sargon's palace in the Shurkhin dynasty. In private homes, figures of the lemso were engraved on clay tablets, which were buried under the doorframe. At the gates of cities, the lemso statues reached particularly large dimensions.
Mosul Hills – the “sandbox” of British and French archaeologists
The history of the discoveries of the Mosul Hills left France with a taste of Louis Mer. If Butte had continued to dig at the first site, just a few more centimeters deeper, then he would have truly discovered the legendary city of Nineveh. The one who continued the excavation was Austen Henry Layard of the British Museum. He continued in the very same place that Butte had given up on. It can be said that with the first stroke of his hoe, Layard hit the walls of one of Nineveh's immense palaces.
When the British excavations began, the French reserved the right to a number of hills. And what else was hidden in the French domain? The local archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam found an opportunity: he took advantage of the absence of his English supervisor, and the waning moonlight, and set out on a tour of the French domain. Rassam wanted to gain recognition through dramatic discoveries. After three nights of frantic digging and ignoring the protests of the French, he discovered the palace of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal and the most famous library in the ancient East, containing twenty thousand cuneiform tablets that, of course, ended up in the British Museum….
Where were the French archaeologists at that time? The motivation of the French was influenced by the frequent cultural, social, and political changes that France underwent during the nineteenth century.
Emile Botha was dismissed from his position due to political changes in France. Following the revolution of 1848, King Louis Philippe was deposed and fled to England. Botha, who was identified as a supporter of the king, was dismissed from his position and did not return to excavate in Mosul. The excavations gradually faded away.
The excavations in Mosul also left Emile Butte with a strong taste… In 1848 he was appointed French consul in Jerusalem. The appointment reflected France’s growing interest in the Holy Land. During his seven-year term in Jerusalem, he was required at times to intervene in religious conflicts between the various communities in the city, and was not satisfied with this. In 1856, he ended his term in Jerusalem and was appointed consul in Tripoli, where he served for the next 13 years.
During these years, he proposed to the French government to continue the excavations, but his proposals were not accepted. His research on cuneiform writing also did not receive widespread acclaim.
His health deteriorated and in 1868 he asked to end his position and return to France. His financial situation was in a slump… He died in 1870 in Acheres.
His grave disappeared after a monument dedicated to the victims of the Paris Commune was built nearby….
The excavations were only resumed with the rise to power of Napoleon III. The emperor realized that the British had “taken” the lead from the French archaeologists, so he decided to resume the excavations and demonstrate its dominance in the area.
The French consul Victor Place continued the excavation work. But, again the French were unlucky! In 1855, all their finds were sent down the Tigris in boats and rafts. Local rebels attacked the convoy and threw the treasures into the water. Out of 240 chests, only 78 were pulled from the river.
And finally…
Archaeologists in the nineteenth century retained an affinity for adventurous romance in the colonial style: the conquest of new, wild lands, with flexible laws and “natives devoid of a sense of heritage.” Archaeologists were the vanguard of empires in the Eastern lands. Now we can get rid of the Indiana Jones myth. Archaeology developed as a science.
The hills around Mosul gave the world a collection of historical documents of immense value. The book of history, hitherto hidden and closed, was suddenly opened page after page. Governors, cities, wars, and stories, which people had heard about for so long only from the Bible, were revealed as arbitrary and existing facts.
Paul-Emile Botha broke open the gate to the historical world of the Bible.
Paul-Emile Botte's name was immortalized on the Jerusalem street where the French consulate is located.
Fascinating article...a fascinating adventure journey.
Fascinating, interesting and thought-provoking! I really enjoyed reading it.
A street named after Emil Botha in Jerusalem, adjacent to the King David Hotel.
An enlightening article. I know Buta Street and was happy to expand my knowledge of who he was.
Very interesting article.
I was happy to be exposed to the archaeological subject and to meet such an interesting person.
Fascinating, thank you very much!
An interesting and comprehensive article that proves that many unknown and energetic men (and women) have advanced the understanding of history and science in general.
Thank you! Fascinating and mind-expanding!
Fascinating article. Thank you.
Great, fascinating and interesting article. Thank you very much!!
Thank you very much 🙂
Emil Botha Street is well known to me. I was happy to read about it.
The finds from Mesopotamia have always fascinated me.
But this is a different angle on the subject.
I will send the link to the article to my lecturer in the course “Images and Stories in the Art of the Ancient Near East”, Prof. Tali Ornan.
Thank you very much 🙂
Thanks for the article. At the first opportunity, we will go to Emil Buta Street in Jerusalem.
Emile Botha first excavated at Tel Koyinjek (1843-1844), which is ancient Nineveh (before him, he had mapped Tel Claudius James Rich). His discoveries were not impressive and he wandered to another place - to the site of Dor Sarukhin, where he found what he was looking for, and he transferred his discoveries to the museum in Paris. Dor Sarukhin (Saragon's Citadel) was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, built by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Dor Sarukhin is located in the area of the village of Khorsabad, about fifteen kilometers north of Nineveh and the ancient city of Mosul in northern Iraq, at the northern end of the Mesopotamian plain.
I always park there in the parking lot across from the consulate. He is a fascinating personality indeed. One of the areas that most amazed me at the Louvre is the Mesopotamian antiquities wing. Thanks for the interesting article.
Thank you very much for sharing the “findings”
I've never heard of Buta, even though I studied archaeology in the 1950s in Jerusalem. Thank you very much.