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[[File:Hormuzd.Rassam.reclined.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Hormuzd Rassam in Mosul c. 1854.]]
'''Hormuzd Rassam''' (1826{{spaced ndash}}16 September 1910) ({{lang-syr|ܗܪܡܙܕ ܪܣܐܡ}}), was a native [[Chaldean people|Chaldean]] and Christian of [[AssyriologyMesopotamia |AssyriologistMesopotamia]] who made a number of important discoveries from 1877 to 1882, including the [[clay tablet]]s that contained the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', the world's oldest literature. He is accepted as the first-known [[Chaldean people|Chaldean]], [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] and [[Middle Eastern]] [[archaeologist]]. Later in life, he became a [[United Kingdom|British]] citizen, settling in [[Brighton]], and represented its government as a [[diplomat]].
==Biography==
===Early life===
Rassam, an ethnic [[Chaldean people|Chaldean]], was born in [[Mosul]], (now modern [[Iraq]]), then part of the [[Ottoman Empire]], into a [[Christian]] family that were members of the [[Chaldean Church of the East]] and [[Chaldean Catholic Church]].<ref name=reade>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/4200366 Julian Reade, "Hormuzd Rassam and His Discoveries"], ''Iraq,'' Vol. 55, (1993), pp. 39-62, Published by: British Institute for the Study of Iraq</ref> His father [[Anton Rassam]] was from Mosul and was archdeacon in the Chaldean Church of the East; his mother Theresa was a daughter of [[Ishaak Halabee]] of [[Aleppo, Syria]], also then within the Ottoman Empire.<ref name="rassam">[http://www.edessa.com/profiles/rasam.htm "Hormuzd Rassam Assyrian Archaeologist 1826-1910"], Edessa</ref>
===Early archaeological career===
At the age of 20 in 1846, Rassam was hired by British archaeologist [[Austen Henry Layard|A.H. Layard]] as a pay master at a nearby excavation site. Layard, who was in Mosul on his first expedition (1845–1847), was impressed by the hard-working Rassam and took him under his wing; they would remain friends for life. Layard provided an opportunity for Rassam to travel to [[England]] and study at [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] ([[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]]). He studied there for 18 months before accompanying Layard on his second expedition to Iraq (1849–1851).
Layard left archeology to begin a political career. Rassam continued field work (1852–1854) at [[Nimrud]] and [[Kuyunjik]], where he made a number of important and independent discoveries. These included the clay tablets that would later be deciphered by [[George Smith (assyriologist)|George Smith]] as the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', the world's oldest-known example of written literature. The tablets' description of a flood story, written 1000 years prior to the earliest record of the Biblical story of Noah, caused much debate at the time about the Biblical narrative of ancient history.
===Diplomatic career===
From 1877 to 1882, while undertaking four expeditions on behalf of the British Museum, Rassam made some important discoveries. Numerous finds of significance were transported to the Museum, thanks to an agreement made with the Ottoman Sultan by Rassam's old colleague [[Sir Austen Henry Layard]], now Ambassador at Constantinople, allowing Rassam to return and continue their earlier excavations and to "pack and dispatch to England any antiquities [he] found … provided, however, there were no duplicates." A representative of the Sultan was instructed to be present at the dig to examine the objects as they were uncovered.<ref name="Rassam">[[#Rassam|Rassam (1897)]], p. 223</ref>
In Chaldea his chief finds were the Ashurnaçirpal temple in [[Nimrud]], the cylinder of [[Ashurbanipal]] at [[Kouyunjik]], and the unique and historically important bronze doors of the temple of [[Shalmaneser III]]. He identified the famous [[Hanging Gardens]] with the mound known as [[Babil]]. He excavated a palace of [[Nebuchadrezzar II]] at Birs Nimrud ([[Borsippa]]).<ref name="goodspeed"/>
In March 1879 at the site of the Ésagila temple in Babylon, Rassam found the [[Cyrus cylinder]], the famous declaration of [[Cyrus the Great]] that was issued in 539 BC to commemorate the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]]'s conquest of [[Babylon]].
At [[Abu Habba]] in 1881, Rassam discovered the temple of the sun at [[Sippar]]. There he found a [[Cylinders of Nabonidus|clay cylinder]] of [[Nabonidus]], and the stone tablet of [[Nabu-apal-iddin]] of Babylon with its ritual bas-relief and inscription. Besides these, he discovered some 50,000 clay tablets containing the temple accounts.<ref name="goodspeed">[http://www.kellscraft.com/HistoryofBabylonians/HistoryOfBabyloniansCh01.html Goodspeed, George Stephen (1902). Chapter 2, "The Excavations in Babylonia and Assyria"], ''A History of the Babylonians and Assyrians'', New York. Charles Scribner's Sons, Accessed April 4, 2011.</ref>
After 1882, Rassam lived mainly at Brighton, England. He wrote about Assyro-Babylonian exploration, the Christian peoples of the [[Near East]], and current religious controversies in England.
===Archeaological reputation===
[[Category:Iraqi Eastern Catholics]]
[[Category:Iraqi Oriental Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:People associated with the British Museum]]
[[Category:People from Mosul]]
