D-1111a: Excavation of Samarra (Iraq): Fragments of Prehistoric Vessels and Artifacts, Found in the Qasr al-Ashiq

Object Details

Local Numbers: D-1111a FSA A.06 05.1111a
General: - Title is provided by Xavier Courouble, FSg Archives cataloger, based on Thomas Leisten's publication, Excavation of Samarra, vol 1.
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note: Drawings related primarly to the first campaign of excavation at Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq), carried out by Ernst Herzfeld on behalf of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin in 1911.

Place: Asia; Iraq; Mesopotamia; Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq); Iraq -- Salah ad-Din -- Samarra -- Qasr al-Ashiq

Topic: Abbasids; Animals in art; Antiquities; Architectural drawing; Art of the Islamic World; Decoration and ornament; Excavations (Archaeology); Pottery

See more items in: Ernst Herzfeld Papers; Ernst Herzfeld Papers / Series 5: Drawings and Maps / D-1111: Samarra. Thirteen sheets of drawings of pottery, etc., marked "Book 3"

Archival Repository: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection Citation: Ernst Herzfeld Papers. FSA.A.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946.

Arrangement: Drawings are arranged roughly in sequential number sequences, housed in document boxes or in flat file folders by size, and stored in the map case drawers.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Scope and Contents: - Original caption reads, "Samarra - Book 3."; - Additional information from the Finds journal reads, "IN-429."; - "The five barrel-vaulted sardābs of the ground level of the gateway abutting the palace were the focus of Herzfeld's excavation activities. Of the five sardābs forming the substructure for the rooms on the second-storey platform, the central one was partially excavated in 1911. The rooms had been filled with debris in the late madieval period when the second storey was remodeled. Finds included not only carved stucco fragments but also lustre and molded wares and a large percentage of Raqqa-wares." [Leisten, Thomas, 2003: "Excavation of Samarra, v. I. Architecture : Final report of the first campaign 1910-1912. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz am Rhein, 2003; p.108."]