Background
He was trained for the French consular service, which he entered with an assignment to Alexandria, then (in 1842) to Mosul. Interested in archaeological research, he enriched public collections with objects from the remains of Middle Eastern civilization. In 1843 he discovered the ruins of Nineveh, relics of which are now in the Assyrian collection of the Louvre museum. Botta's diggings were continued on the left bank of the Tigris by an Englishman, Sir Austen Henry Layard. As a result of his first-hand investigations, Botta published, in addition to works dealing with the cuneiform writing of the Assyrians, Inscriptions découvertesdecouvertes àa Khorsabad (1848), and Monument de Ninive (1849-1850). The latter work contains drawings by EugèneEugene Napoleon Flandin of Paris and is considered to be the first outstanding work on Assyrian archaeology. Botta served as French consul general in Jerusalem between 1847 and 1857, and from 1857 to 1870 as consul general in Tripoli. He died in Poissy, Mar. 29, 1870.