Hormuzd Rassam

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Rassam did make an amazing number of important discoveries for the British Museum, including the Lionhunt Reliefs, the Balawat Gates, Ashurbanipal’s library (including part of the Epic of Gilgamesh). But he has really been neglected in histories of archaeology in the Near East. Partly, this is due to bad luck – the earlier discoveries of Henry Layard created much more interest in England and people were less excited by Rassam’s finds. Partly, this is also due to Rassam’s own failure to promote himself – he did not manage to publish an account of his discoveries until very late in his life, by which time his contribution had already been forgotten. Finally, rather more unpleasantly, Rassam seems to have suffered from institutional racism. Unlike almost all other excavators at the time, Rassam was actually a native of the area he was working in (his family came from Mosul). Because he was not a European, some of his colleagues at the British Museum were suspicious of him, and even during his lifetime, credit for discoveries that he had made was often taken away from him and given to his colleagues at the museum, including Henry Rawlinson and George Smith.

Hopefully, this neglect will be changed by our film. 2010 is the centenary of Hormuzd Rassam’s death, so this might also be another good opportunity to draw attention to him and reassess his important contribution to archaeology in Mesopotamia !

mag ik daarom die (BBC) film 
NOGMAALS

promoten !