Botta, Paul Émile

Botta, Paul Émile (1802-1870), French archaeologist and diplomat, born in Turin, Italy, the son of the Italian historian and doctor Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta, who became a French citizen in 1814. Botta studied medicine but later entered the French diplomatic service; his first post was in Alexandria, Egypt. In 1842 he was assigned to Mosul in Iraq, then a Turkish province. While there he directed a search for Assyrian antiquities at the nearby village of Khorsabad. Excavation uncovered ruins of the city Dur Sharrukin, founded by Sargon II, King of Assyria (reigned 722-705 bc). Statues of Sargon and winged bulls that guarded his palace were moved to the Louvre in Paris. Botta wrote accounts of his discoveries and a work on the cuneiform writings of the Assyrians.