Papers of John George Taylor

Copy of the 'Notes of Excavation at Muqeyer during January and February 1858'. A handwritten manuscript with pencil drawings describing Taylor's excavations at Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq, in ancient times known as Ur. This is a description of later excavations, not those first written about by Taylor (wrongly attributed as J.E. Taylor) in the 1855 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, under the title _Notes on the Ruins of Muqeyer._

John George Taylor was an archaeologist, son of Captain [later Colonel] R. Taylor, who was the Assistant Political Agent in Basra from 1818-1822. John Taylor was appointed the Hon. East India Company's Agent and H.M. Vice-Consul at Basra from 8 August 1851 to 30 September 1858, and from 1859 H.M. Consul-General for Kurdistan at Diyarbekir and Erzerum. He excavated at Ur (1854) as a direct result of an earlier visit by William Kennett Loftus (q.v.), and at Abu Shahrain and Tell al-Lahm (1855). He must also have returned to Ur in 1858.
In 1861 he recovered stelae of Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III at Kurkh near Diyarbekir, and he was commissioned to excavate in this region on behalf of the British Museum.

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They were lent by the British Museum in 1859.

John George Taylor was an archaeologist, son of Captain [later Colonel] R. Taylor, who was the Assistant Political Agent in Basra from 1818-1822. John Taylor was appointed the Hon. East India Company's Agent and H.M. Vice-Consul at Basra from 8 August 1851 to 30 September 1858, and from 1859 H.M. Consul-General for Kurdistan at Diyarbekir and Erzerum. He excavated at Ur (1854) as a direct result of an earlier visit by William Kennett Loftus (q.v.), and at Abu Shahrain and Tell al-Lahm (1855). He must also have returned to Ur in 1858.
In 1861 he recovered stelae of Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III at Kurkh near Diyarbekir, and he was commissioned to excavate in this region on behalf of the British Museum.

These papers were catalogued by Nancy Charley, RAS Archivist, in 2022, and updated in 2023.

Digital photography (without flash) for research purposes may be permitted upon completion of a copyright declaration form, and with respect to current UK copyright law.

The original papers were part of the records of the British Museum records. They were lent to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1859 but never returned. After cataloguing by the archivist at the Royal Asiatic Society, a visiting researcher identified them in 2023 as belonging to the British Museum. The original were therefore returned to the British Museum collections in September 2023 and a copy made to be retained at the Royal Asiatic Society Archives.

The originals are located at the British Museum.

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