Excavation of Samarra (Iraq): Balkuwara Palace, Cruciform Reception-hall Block and Courtyard III: Three Small Isometric Reconstructions

Object Details

Local Numbers: S-30 FSA A.06 07.30.15
General: - Title is provided by Xavier Courouble, FSg Archives cataloger, based on Thomas Leisten's publication, Excavation of Samarra, vol 1.; - Series title in Joseph Upton's Catalogue of the Herzfeld Archive reads, "Records of Samarra Expeditions."
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note: Notes related primarly to the two campaigns of excavation at Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq), carried out by Ernst Herzfeld on behalf of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin between the years 1911 and 1913.
Funding note: Funded by

Place: Asia; Iraq; Mesopotamia; Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq); Iraq -- Salah ad-Din -- Samarra -- Balkuwara

Topic: Abbasids; Architectural drawing; Architecture; Art of the Islamic World; Excavations (Archaeology)

See more items in: Ernst Herzfeld Papers; Ernst Herzfeld Papers / Series 7: Records of Samarra Expeditions / S-30: "Samarra, Privathäuser." Contains measured drawings of plans and architectural details with cross-references to sketchbooks (S-12/29) and to the Fundjournal. The material on the houses should be studied in conjunction with the photographs in Photo Files 19--23 and the unpublished plans and drawings in the "D" (drawings) file.

Extent: 1 Drawings (visual works) (1 leaf, 10.2 cm. x 13.7 cm); 1 Drawings (visual works) (1 leaf, 6.8 cm. x 10.1 cm); 1 Drawings (visual works) (1 leaf, 8.3 cm. x 13 cm)

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: - Journals, letters, and sketchbooks are arranged roughly in sequential number sequences, housed in document boxes.; - S-30 is organized into 17 subdivisions which include one or several items of original materials.

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

Bibliography: 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."

Scope and Contents: - Original caption reads, "Samarra, mittelteil von Balkuwārā."; - Additional information reads, "During the relatively short period of work at Manqūr / Balkuwārā in the summer and early fall of 1911, Herzfeld's efforts focused mainly on the central reception block between the third courtyard and the so-called river garden above the Tigris, especially on the eastern Īwān and some adjacent easterly rooms. He surveyed the rest of the reception block of the palace, including the cruciform domed hall in the center as well as the courtyard houses and ancillary complexes with the two maidāns to the south and north and added their general outlines, as far as they were visible among the ruins, to the plan. Herzfeld was certainly interested in the main architectonic features of the palace, but at the same time had hoped to uncover new varieties of stucco wall ornaments and to make major ceramic finds. In both he was disappointed. This probably contributed to his decision to stop the work on the site at the end of September 1911." [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.91."]