Qurnah Disaster

The Qurnah disaster was a May 1855 shipwreck at Al-Qurnah (modern Iraq), at the confluence point of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.[1] It represents one of the most high profile disasters in the history of archaeology.[1]

Convoy of rafts (Keleks) floating down the Tigris river loaded with antiquities in 1855 (V Place 1867)

The disaster took place during a period of civil unrest, during a period of fighting between the Al-Muntafiq confederation and the Ottoman Empire.[2] The fighting ended with an Al-Muntafiq leader being appointed as provincial governor and tax farmer by the Ottomans, creating problems with the tribes not allied to their confederation.[3]

Background

Excavations at Dur-Sharrukin were being carried out by the new French consul, Victor Place, and in 1855 another shipment of antiquities was ready to be sent back to Paris.[4][5] Antiquities from Rawlinson's expedition to Kuyunjik and Fresnel's to Babylon were subsequently added to the shipment.[6][7]

Place, who was French consul at Mosul, was unable to attend the shipment himself, as he had been summoned to his new consular post in Moldavia due to the ongoing Crimean War.[8][9]

He appointed a Swiss professor named A. Clément as his consular agent and to manage the shipment.[1]

Cargo

A cargo ship and four rafts were prepared to carry the artifacts, but even this substantial effort was over-whelmed by the sheer number of items to be transported. The cargo included:[1]

  • 2 winged, human-headed Lamassu bulls, weighing almost 30 tonnes each
  • 2 winged genies, weighing almost 13 tonnes each
  • Over 150 crates of all dimensions, including basalt and alabaster statues, bas-reliefs, and many inscribed objects in iron, bronze, gold and silver

The cargo which survived the disaster was:

Disaster

The troubles began once the convoy left Baghdad in May 1855, as the banks of the river Tigris were controlled by local sheikhs who were hostile to the Ottoman authorities and frequently raided shipping sailing by.[10] During the journey, the convoy was boarded several times, forcing the crew to relinquish most of their money and supplies in order to be allowed further passage on the river.[8][6]

Once the convoy reached Al-Qurnah (Kurnah) it was assaulted by local pirates led by Sheikh Abu Saad, whose actions sank the main cargo ship and forced the four rafts aground shortly afterwards.[6]

The entire shipment was almost completely lost with only 28 of over 200 crates eventually making it to the Louvre in Paris.[1][11][12]

Recovery efforts

Subsequent efforts to recover the lost antiquities, including a Japanese expedition in 1971-2, have largely been unsuccessful.[6]

Notable sources

References
  1. Potts, D.T. (2020-12-16). "Potts 2020. 'Un coup terrible de la fortune:' A. Clément and the Qurna disaster of 1855. Pp. 235-244 in Finkel, I.L. and Simpson, St J., eds. In Context: The Reade Festschrift. Oxford: Archaeopress". Academia.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  2. GENÇ, BÜLENT (2021-04-19). "Memory of destroyed Khorsabad, Victor Place, and the story of a shipwreck". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Cambridge University Press (CUP). 31 (4): 759–774. doi:10.1017/s135618632100016x. ISSN 1356-1863. S2CID 234857530.
  3. Kiyotaki, K. (2019). Ottoman Land Reform in the Province of Baghdad. The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage. Brill. p. 47. ISBN 978-90-04-38434-7. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  4. Place, Victor; undefined (1867–1870). Ninive et l'Assyrie, par Victor Place avec des essais de restauration par Felix Thomas. Paris: Impr. Impériale.
  5. Joseph Bonomi, Ninevah and Its Palaces: The Discoveries of Botta and Layard, Applied to the Elucidation of Holy Writ, Bohn, 1957 (2003 Reprint, Gorgias Press LLC, ISBN 1-59333-067-7)
  6. Namio Egami, "The Report of The Japan Mission For The Survey of Under-Water Antiquities At Qurnah: The First Season," (1971-72), 1-45
  7. Pillet, Maurice (1881-1964) Auteur du texte (1922). L'expédition scientifique et artistique de Mésopotamie et de Médie, 1851-1855 (in French). Paris: Paris: Éditions Champion. pp. VIII, 8, 337.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  8. Larsen, M.T. (1996). The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land (1st ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315862859 pp. 344-9
  9. Potts, D. T. "Potts 2020. 'Un coup terrible de la fortune:' A. Clément and the Qurna disaster of 1855. Pp. 235-244 in Finkel, I.L. and Simpson, St J., eds. In Context: The Reade Festschrift. Oxford: Archaeopress". Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2021-04-11. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. Pillet, Maurice (1881-1964) Auteur du texte (1922). L'expédition scientifique et artistique de Mésopotamie et de Médie, 1851-1855 / Maurice Pillet,... Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  11. Samuel D. Pfister, "The Qurnah Disaster: Archaeology & Piracy in Mesopotamia," Bible History Daily, (January 20, 2021), https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/the-qurnah-disaster/ Archived 2021-03-02 at the Wayback Machine
  12. Robert William Rogers, A history of Babylonia and Assyria: Volume 1, Abingdon Press, 1915
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