Guennol Lioness

[athenas owl]

Very off topic I know, but I was hoping that someone here could tell me when and where this exquisite little figure was found? I know that Leonard Woolley found it in Iraq "near Baghdad" in the 20's or early 30's. But after quite some time on the Google, I've not been able to find more precise information. Woolley did the famous digs at Ur, which, as a young child was the most interesting thing to me ever...now some 50 years later I just want to know this one little thing!

Does Jstor have some record? I'd actually pay for that.

Thank you, in advance. Take care all. AO

[marcus]

A very quick search tells me that Woolley found it at Ur.

I'm literally about to step out of the door to go out for the day; but I do have a biography of Woolley, so when I get home I might be able to find a reference to it.

[athenas owl]

At Ur itself? That's interesting.

I do appreciate you looking it up for me Marcus. Though there is no rush, enjoy your evening/s. I had bookmarked an much more comprehensive article from several years ago, but now can not find it. If memory serves, though, the figurine was thought to be an object out of place, having been removed from it's original location. There was an interesting discussion on the original appearance.

The Google seems to be filled only with the auction and price for pages and pages these days. I'll try again.

[marcus]

Didn't get a chance to do any more digging yesterday, as I was out until late. But I'll see what I can find this weekend.

[Alexias]

I found this:

In 1931, New York art dealer Joseph Brummer came to possess the figure after reporting its discovery at a site near Baghdad. In 1948, the piece was purchased by Alastair Bradley Martin and Edith Park Martin. As a trustee and President of the Brooklyn Museum, Mr. Martin had the object—along with other artifacts from his family’s collection—displayed at the museum, and kept them there on a long term loan.

here http://historicity-was-already-taken.tu ... ol-lioness

Given that Woolley was excavating at Ur (a considerable distance from Baghdad) between 1922 and 1934 on behalf of the British Museum and the University of Pensylvania who would have had first dibs on the artifacts, I would guess that Woolley didn't find it and that Brummer (an art dealer) maybe didn't know exactly where it had come from.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has 2 books on the Guennol collection (vol 1 here http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpu ... tion_Vol_1) that are available to download. Maybe they would have more detail.

[athenas owl]

Thanks Alexias.

That's interesting. I did find one article (which I did not keep ) saying that it had been found by Seton Lloyd at Tel Agrab (The Temple of Shara)...and the U of Chicago figured in as well, I think. Tel Agrab is SE of Babylon, not near UR. I discounted it because there was no mention of Woolley. That's what I get for believing the internets.

Found this below just now....scroll down to "Place of discovery". It's a PDF so I can't copy and paste.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/eca ... 373-30.pdf

I wonder how it went from this to Woolley?

Thank you so much for the help, Marcus and Alexias.

[Alexias]

I followed a few links and it appears Seton Lloyd (a British archeologist funded by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago), excavated a series of sites in the Diyala river valley to the south-east of Baghdad from 1930-37. Tell Agrab was one of these sites and the Wikipedia entry says

"Though it had been subject to illegal digging earlier, the site was officially excavated in 1936 and 1937 by a team from the Oriental Institute of Chicago which was also working at Eshnunna, Khafajah and Tell Ishchali during that time. " Pre-Sargonid Temples in the Diyala Region. Pinhas Delougaz and Seton Lloyd with chapters by Henri Frankfort and Thorkild Jacobsen, Oriental Institute Publication 58, 1942.

The Diyala river is an important trade route between Iran and Iraq, and these dates would seem to tie up with Brummer acquiring the lioness from a local dealer in Baghdad. And shades of Indiana Jones seem to be creeping in here.

[marcus]

Well, there was nothing in the biography of Woolley. I didn't really think there would be, as it was a biography rather than a detailed site report ... but I felt it was worth looking.

(Apologies for the delay in actually looking - I have just recovered from an unprecedented and particularly virulent attack of food poisoning! )

[Alexias]

Hope you are feeling better, Marcus.

I'm in the process ofuploading episode 4 of the David Adams series - it has a bit of archaeology in it about Alexandria on the Oxus.

[marcus]

Hope you are feeling better, Marcus.

I'm in the process ofuploading episode 4 of the David Adams series - it has a bit of archaeology in it about Alexandria on the Oxus.

Fab! I haven't been able to watch any of the programmes yet, as I had a dodgy wireless router and consequently couldn't stream-view anything for more than about a minute before I lost connection. However, I now have a new router and it seems to be good, so I look forward to an extended viewing session in the near future! All hail the Internet ...