Wilhelm König

Wilhelm König (born in Vienna) was an Austrian archaeologist and painter.

A painter by profession, in 1931, König was elected assistant to the German leader of the Baghdad Antiquity Administration with the title of a "Direktor". At the excavation of a Parthian settlement in modern day Khujut Rabu (near Baghdad, Iraq), he discovered the alleged Baghdad Battery.^[1]^[2] In February 1939, he returned to Vienna, due to blood poisoning, where he published a book Im verlorenen Paradies. Neun Jahre Irak.^[3]

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Controversy

In March 2012, Professor Elizabeth Stone, of Stony Brook University, an expert on Iraqi archaeology, returning from one of the first archaeological expeditions in Iraq since 20 years, stated that she does not know a single archaeologist, who believed that this was a "real battery".^[4]^[5]

Works

Neun Jahre Irak Brünn, Münster, Wien 1940

Work

Plaster castings

The plaster castings of objects from the Iraq museum, which are exhibited in the "Vorderasiatisches Museum" in Berlin, were made by König.

Publications

Ein galvanisches Element aus der Partherzeit? In: Forschungen und Fortschritte^(de). Band 14, 1936, S. 8–9.
Im verlorenen Paradies. Neun Jahre Irak. Rohrer, Baden bei Wien u. a. 1940 (Buchbesprechung von Käte Fück: König: Im verlorenen Paradies. Neun Jahre Irak. In: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. Band 95 [Neue Folge Band 20], Nr. 3/4, 1941, S. 441 f. [Digitalisat]).

Literature

Arnold Nöldeke^(de): Briefe aus Uruk-Warka, 1931–1939. Hrsg. von Margarete van Ess^(de) und Elisabeth Weber-Nöldeke. Reichert, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-89500-485-8, S. 331.
Erich Zehren: Die biblischen Hügel: zur Geschichte der Archäeologie.Hrsg. von F. A. Herbig^(de), 1961, S. 88, 124, 157, u.v.m. (Google Books)

References

^ Ein galvanisches Element aus der Partherzeit? In: Forschungen und Fortschritte^(de). Band 14, 1936, S. 8–9.
^ Frood, Arran (February 27, 2003). "Riddle of 'Baghdad's batteries'". BBC News. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
^ Im verlorenen Paradies. Neun Jahre Irak. Rohrer, Baden bei Wien u. a. 1940. (Google Books)
^ Stone, Elizabeth (March 23, 2012). "Archaeologists Revisit Iraq". Science Friday (Interview). Interviewed by Flatow, Ira. Archived from the original on March 26, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2012. My recollection of it is that most people don't think it was a battery. [...] It resembled other clay vessels [...] used for rituals, in terms of having multiple mouths to it. I think it's not a battery. I think the people who argue it's a battery are not scientists, basically. I don't know anybody who thinks it's a real battery in the field.
^ Prof. Stone's statement, listed as a 'red flag' among 5 red flags why it was not a battery (with sources, on Archaeology Fantasies website)