Wilhelm König (born in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
) was an
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
and
painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
.
A painter by profession, in 1931, König was elected assistant to the German leader of the
Baghdad Antiquity Administration with the title of a "Direktor". At the excavation of a
Parthian settlement in modern day
Khujut Rabu (near
Baghdad
Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...
,
Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
), he discovered the alleged
Baghdad Battery
The Baghdad Battery is the name given to a set of three artifacts which were found together: a ceramic pot, a tube of copper, and a rod of iron. It was discovered in present-day Khujut Rabu, Iraq in 1936, close to the ancient city of Ctesiphon, t ...
.
In February 1939, he returned to Vienna, due to blood poisoning, where he published a book ''Im verlorenen Paradies. Neun Jahre Irak''.
Controversy
In March 2012, Professor Elizabeth Stone, of
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...
, an expert on Iraqi archaeology, returning from one of the first archaeological expeditions in Iraq since 20 years, stated that she does not know a single archaeologist, who believed that this was a "''real'' battery".
[Prof. Stone's statement, listed as a 'red flag' amon]
5 red flags why it was not a battery
(with sources, on Archaeology Fantasies website)
Works
''Neun Jahre Irak''Brünn, Münster, Wien 1940
Work
Plaster castings
The plaster castings of objects from the Iraq museum, which are exhibited in the "Vorderasiatisches Museum" in Berlin, were made by König.
Publications
* ''Ein galvanisches Element aus der Partherzeit?'' In: ''
Forschungen und Fortschritte( de).'' Band 14, 1936, S. 8–9.
* ''Im verlorenen Paradies. Neun Jahre Irak.'' Rohrer, Baden bei Wien u. a. 1940 (Buchbesprechung von Käte Fück: ''König: Im verlorenen Paradies. Neun Jahre Irak.'' In: ''Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.'' Band 95
eue Folge Band 20 Nr. 3/4, 1941, S. 441 f.
Digitalisat
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Literature
* Arnold Nöldeke( de): ''Briefe aus Uruk
Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...
-Warka, 1931–1939.'' Hrsg. von Margarete van Ess( de) und Elisabeth Weber-Nöldeke. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2008, , S. 331.
* Erich Zehren: ''Die biblischen Hügel: zur Geschichte der Archäeologie.''Hrsg. von F. A. Herbig( de), 1961, S. 88, 124, 157, u.v.m.
Google Books
References
External links
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
Archaeologists from Vienna
Directors of museums in Germany
{{Germany-archaeologist-stub