Excavation of Samarra (Iraq): View of Remnants of the Qubbat al-Sulaibiyya

Object Details

Local Numbers: Box 11, File 19, Folder 6, Image 121c FSA A.06 04.PF.19.286
General: - Title is provided by Xavier Courouble, FSg Archives cataloger, based on Ernst Herzfeld's publication, "Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra, vol. 1: Der Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine Ornamentik."
Date/Time and Place of an Event Note: Prints 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 in 1911 and 1913.

Place: Asia; Iraq; Mesopotamia; Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq); Iraq -- Salah ad-Din -- Samarra -- Qubbat al-Sulaibiyya

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

See more items in: Ernst Herzfeld Papers; Ernst Herzfeld Papers / Series 4: Photographic Files / 4.19: Photo File 19: Samarra: Wandschmuck / are snapshots. Some are identified, some are cross-referenced to prints in other Samarra files: 20--23

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: Prints are organized in sequential number following publication series, "Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra." They are arranged in photo file folders which are housed in document boxes, and stored on shelves.

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

Scope and Contents: Caption provided by Joseph Upton reads, "Qubbat al-Sulaibiyya. cf. 23-23."; Additional information from Archives staff reads, "No existing negative."; Additional information reads, "Visiting the site of Samarra in 1908, Sarre and Herzfeld had already become interested in the Qubbat al-Ṣulaibiyya. Herzfeld published preliminary measurements as well as a tentative interpretation of the building as the mausoleum of three of the caliphs of Samarra in 1911. During his absence at the end of June 1911, after some of his most skilled workmen from Ḥillah had begun to remove the debris in and around the building, Herzfeld returned to the Qubbat al-Ṣulaibiyya in the early days of December 1911. Between December 3 and 5, additional research was undertaken in the form of a deep sounding within the main chamber of the building that revealed three skeletons." [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.72."]