Austen Henry Layard at the remains of Nineveh: The everyday life of an archaeological expedition

A.A. Popova

Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Omsk, 644077 Russia

E-mail: alispopova13@yandex.ru

Received July 12, 2021

 

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.6.113-126

For citation: Popova A.A. Austen Henry Layard at the remains of Nineveh: The everyday life of an archaeological expedition. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2021, vol. 163, no. 6, pp. 113–126. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.6.113-126. (In Russian)

Abstract

The everyday life of research laboratories has been widely viewed as a promising avenue of historiographic studies concerning the accumulation, processing, and production of scholastic knowledge, which depends on many internal and external factors. Austen Henry Layard’s expedition is an unusual example of a historian’s laboratory. Most modern scholars agree that the excavations carried out by him date back to the prescientific stage in archeology development. At this stage, the theoretical and methodological foundations of this discipline were still undeveloped. Nevertheless, A.H. Layard’s contribution to the deve­lopment of historical scholarship in general and Assyriology in particular was enormous. From that standpoint, the research performed at A.H. Layard’s laboratory, the process of obtaining and formalizing knowledge within it, and the factors that influenced its activity are of great interest. This article focuses on the factors of the everyday life of a laboratory scholar. Their influence on how the studies of the expedition’s materials were performed is analyzed. A.H. Layard’s main work “Nineveh and Its  Remains” became a bestseller and drew the public’s attention to the Assyrian history and culture, as well as marked the beginning of the Assyriological research legitimization among scholars.

Keywords: archeology, Assyriology, historiography of Assyria, archeology of Mesopotamia, history of everyday life, Austen Henry Layard

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