William Kennett Loftus (13 November 1820,

Linton, Kent Linton is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the southward slope of the Greensand ridge, south of Maidstone on the A229 Hastings road. The name Linton comes from Old English, probab ...

– 27 November 1858, at sea) was a British geologist, naturalist, explorer and archaeological excavator. He discovered the ancient

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...

ian city of

Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...

in 1849.

Biography

Loftus was brought up in Rye,

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...

, and went to school at

Newcastle Royal Grammar School (By Learning, You Will Lead) , established = , closed = , type = Grammar SchoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Geoffrey Stanford , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , cha ...

. In Cambridge, where from 1840 he studied geology, he was a resident of

Caius College Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...

. In 1845 he married Charlotte Thulbourne. From 1849 he served as geologist and naturalist with the British government's Turco-Persian Boundary Commission, under Colonel Fenwick Williams (Royal Artillery). The work of the mission gave Loftus and his friend Henry Adrian Churchill the chance to visit ancient sites and, in 1850, to excavate for a month at Uruk (Warka) and

Larsa Larsa ( Sumerian logogram: UD.UNUGKI, read ''Larsamki''), also referred to as Larancha/Laranchon (Gk. Λαραγχων) by Berossos and connected with the biblical Ellasar, was an important city-state of ancient Sumer, the center of the cul ...

(Senkereh), discovering the

Ziggurat of Ur The Ziggurat (or Great Ziggurat) of Ur ( Sumerian: "Etemenniguru", meaning "temple whose foundation creates aura") is a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat in what was the city of Ur near Nasiriyah, in present-day Dhi Qar Province, Iraq. The structure wa ...

. Briefly, in February to April 1851, Loftus was released from the work of the commission to excavate at

Susa Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...

on behalf of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, but was in June replaced by

Hormuzd Rassam Hormuzd Rassam ( ar, هرمز رسام; syr, ܗܪܡܙܕ ܪܣܐܡ; 182616 September 1910), was an Assyriologist and author. He is known for making a number of important archaeological discoveries from 1877 to 1882, including the clay tablets tha ...

, together with whom Loftus subsequently explored the sites and collaborated on a report on the work at Susa. He is credited with the discovery of the

Apadana Apadana ( peo, 𐎠𐎱𐎭𐎠𐎴) is a large hypostyle hall in Persepolis, Iran. It belongs to the oldest building phase of the city of Persepolis, in the first half of the 6th century BC, as part of the original design by Darius the Gre ...

, later excavated by the French amateur archaeologist

Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy (; 3 August 1844 - 25 February 1920) was a French archaeologist, noted for his excavations at Susa (modern-day Shush, Iran) in 1885 and for his work, ''L'Art antique de la Perse.'' Early life Marcel-Auguste Dieulafoy wa ...

. Engaged in 1853 by the newly founded Assyrian Excavation Fund to conduct excavations in Warka, Loftus worked at the site from January to April 1854, uncovering the famous coloured clay cone wall and some tablets written in cuneiform script. In October of the same year he transferred to

Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ban ...

, and also worked at

Nimrud Nimrud (; syr, ܢܢܡܪܕ ar, النمرود) is an ancient Assyrian city located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah ( ar, السلامية), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. It was a majo ...

, where in February 1855 he found the so-called "Burnt Palace" of the Assyrian king

Assurnasirpal II Ashur-nasir-pal II (transliteration: ''Aššur-nāṣir-apli'', meaning " Ashur is guardian of the heir") was king of Assyria from 883 to 859 BC. Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 883 BC. During his reign he embarked ...

and a hoard of exquisite ivories. In 1854 be briefly excavated at Tell Sifr. In September 1856 Loftus was engaged as assistant geologist to the

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

, but in India he suffered declining health and died at sea on the voyage back to Britain, aged 38.

Works

''Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana in 1849-52''
(1857) *''Reports of the Assyrian Excavation Fund I and II'', published in R.D. Barnett, ''Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668-627 B.C.)'' (1976)

References

External links

* 1820 births 1858 deaths English explorers English archaeologists English Assyriologists People educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne People from Rye, East Sussex Employees of the British Museum Victorian writers 19th-century English writers 19th-century archaeologists Uruk {{UK-archaeologist-stub Assyriologists