Archaeology

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Archaeology
Paul Emile Botta [1807-1870]
<Back to Last Page>     <Full Glossary>

 Related Terms
• Khorsabad
• Assyria
 
 
Definition: French archaeologist Paul Emile Botta (son of an Italian historian, so sometimes referred to as an Italian) was a politician in Mosul in what is now modern Iraq when some workers stumbled on the site of Khorsabad; because he couldn't read the cuneiform tablets, he announced that he had found Nineveh, actually 15 miles to the south. Botta spent four years excavating at Khorsabad; after which he retired from archaeology. He was the first archaeologist to excavate an Assyrian palace; it just wasn't Nineveh.

Related Resources:

History of Archaeology, Part II: A little bit of science
An article in a series about the history of archaeology.
<Back to Last Page>     <Full Glossary>

Explore Archaeology

More from About.com

Browse All About.com

Archaeology

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Archaeology
  4. Archaeologists
  5. Biographies
  6. Archaeologists A-C
  7. Paul Emile Botta

©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.