Fragment from a frieze, plaster, of a large lozenge-shaped boss decorated with a fluted 'fleur-de-lys' motif within a 'pearl' border; Iraq (Samarra), mid-9th century.

Fragment, plaster, from a frieze of a large lozenge-shaped boss decorated wwith incised and carved in low-relief with a design centering a fluted foliate device or 'fleur-de-lys' beneath a partial teadrop motif with semi-circular beadwork and above a raised triangular panel, the whole edged with a 'pearl' border. Covered with a varnish after excavations. Herzfeld's red inventory number I-N 218 on object.

Given by H.M. Government

The research, cataloguing and digitisation of the V&A's Samarra collection has been made possible by a pilot project grant from the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (2013).

The German Archaeologist, Ernst Herzfeld (1879- 1948) chose Samarra as the site for the first large-scale archaeological investigation into Islamic antiquities. Two excavations took place, in 1911 and later from 1912-1913. The list of Herzfeld's finds numbered in excess of 1161 objects. These included wall paintings, plaster wall revetments, carved and painted woodwork, architectural details carved from marble and alabaster and smaller finds of glass, ceramics, steatite and mother of pearl.

All of the finds were stored at Samarra except for 100 panels of carved plaster which were shipped back to Germany and are now in the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin. After Samarra was captured by the British in World War I, the remaining finds were moved to Basra via Baghdad, where Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) as honorary Director of Antiquities in Iraq, acted as the art advisor to the V&A. Due to the efforts of the directors of both the V&A and the British Museum, the finds were eventually shipped to London in 1921.

The Foreign and Colonial Office convened a commission at the British Museum, which Herzfeld was invited to preside over to divide the Samarra finds into type sets. These were later offered to over twenty different museums and collections including the V&A which received several hundred objects in all media, accessioned in 1922.

Iraq, Samarra, German Samarra expedition 1911-1913: House XIII, room 11.

Samarra was founded by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tasim (r. 833-842) in 836 AD to serve as his imperial capital. The sight chosen was about 125km upstream from Baghdad on the left bank of the Tigris. The founding of new cities was an important way of displaying values of kingship. Al-Mu'tasim ordered the construction of a planned city including a network of canals, streets, monumental mosques, palaces, gardens and racecourses. He also allocated land to military and court officials, who built richly decorated palace complexes and greatly increased the size of the city. His son and successor, Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861) ordered the construction of the famous spiral minaret at the great mosque. Construction halted at Samarra in about 880 AD and later was abandoned by the Caliph and his court in 892. At 57 km2, Samarra is today the largest Islamic archaeological site in the world.

The construction of the many mosques and palaces at Samarra fostered an early flowering of architectural decoration. What mainly survives today are wall revetments in carved plaster and wall paintings on fine gypsum surfaces. Earlier Iranian (Sassanian) decorative styles influenced much of the carved plaster panels found at Samarra. The decoration was primarily based on vegetal forms but later developed into more abstract motifs. The wall paintings illustrate a wide range of subjects such as geometric patterns and courtly scenes with figurative representations of listening and playing music, banqueting and dancing. Depictions of animals, especially camels and birds also feature on fragments recovered from the site.

This lozenge-shaped stucco fragment possibly formed part of a frieze on the ceiling around the base of a wooden dome. The decoration was carved and incised while the plaster was still damp. It was apparently found in House XIII, no. 11, ornament no. 172 (Herzfeld 1923). Herzfeld categorises this under his first style, the last category of the so-called bevelled style (Creswell's Style C), but calls it 'Freies Deckenmuster' or 'a free pattern', as if he was not quite sure where to place it. He adds that like ornament no. 171 - a dado in the domed room in the 'harim' at Dar al-Khalifa - there were alternating blue
and red highlights inside the deep holes in the pearls. Leisten (2003) suggests that some of these pieces were treated with shellac on site to preserve them, and this probably was done at sometime, judging by its yellowish colour. However, in Herzfeld's report dated 12 September 1921 written to the Colonial Secretary after he had gone through all the finds in the British Museum and a propos of the carved stucco.

A.66-1922