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