In Search of Kings and Conquerors: Gertrude Bell and the Archaeology of the Middle East

326 Pages·2016·4.96 MB·English

by  Lisa Cooper

Lisa Cooper is Associate Professor of Near Eastern Art & Archaeology at the
University of British Columbia. She is the author of Early Urbanism on the
Syrian Euphrates.
‘Although Gertrude Bell has been a favourite subject for biographers, their focus
on her travels, romances and political role has often overshadowed the
significance of her archaeological work. Lisa Cooper’s lively, authoritative and
very welcome account reveals Bell as a scholar rather than a dilettante. As the
author makes very evident, it was Bell’s interest and involvement in the
archaeology of the Middle East that shaped her approach not merely to the
understanding of its vanished civilizations, but also to the peoples and societies
that she encountered in her travels. This work situates Bell within a network of
pioneering individuals that were transforming archaeology into a serious,
scholarly discipline but this is far from a dry, academic survey of archaeological
activity. Rather it brings us closer to understanding Gertrude Bell’s appreciation
of Iraq’s past, a vision that would inform her later activities in shaping the
region’s future.’
Paul Collins, Jaleh Hearn Curator for Ancient Near East,
Ashmolean Museum
IN SEARCH OF KINGS
AND CONQUERORS
Gertrude Bell and the Archaeology of the
Middle East
L C
ISA OOPER
Published in 2016 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd London • New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright © 2016 Lisa Cooper The right of Lisa Cooper to be identified as the
author of this work has been asserted by the
author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be
reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images
in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
ISBN: 978 1 84885 498 7
eISBN: 978 0 85772 896 8
ePDF: 978 0 85772 805 0
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP
record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog
Card Number: available
For Richard and Julianne:
‘Light of mine eyes and harvest of my heart’
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Early Life and First Steps in Archaeology
2. Euphrates Journey
3. Ukhaidir – Desert Splendour
4. Encounters in the Heart of Mesopotamia
5. Further Travels and Archaeological Research, 1910–14
6. Mesopotamia and Iraq – Past and Present Entwined
Notes
Bibliography
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig. 1.1: Gertrude Bell, taken around 1895, when she was about 26 years old.
(PERS_A_005, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)
Fig. 1.2: Bell’s 1905 photograph of the Arab castle of Shayzar (tenth to
thirteenth centuries CE). (Album B_190, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive,
Newcastle University.) Fig. 1.3: Bell’s photograph of the rock-cut tomb of
Sextius Florentinus at Petra. (Album A_428, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell
Archive, Newcastle University.)
Fig. 1.4: Colonnade inside the precinct of the Temple of Bel, Palmyra (Syria).
(Album A_300, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)
Fig. 1.5: Gertrude Bell and her servant, Fattuh, standing in front of her tent at
Ramsay and Bell’s camp at Binbirkilise (south central Turkey), in 1907. (Album
H_239, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.) Fig. 1.6:
Bell’s photograph of several ruined Byzantine churches at Binbirkilise (south
central Turkey). (Album H_128, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive,
Newcastle University.) Fig. 1.7: The ruined interior of Church No. 1 at
Binbirkilise (fifth century CE). (Album D_205, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell
Archive, Newcastle University.) Fig. 2.1: Map of Bell’s 1909 Near Eastern
journey. (Map prepared by Stephen Batiuk.)
Fig. 2.2: David Hogarth – traveller, archaeologist, author and political operative
– with T.E. Lawrence and Alan G.C. Dawnay. (Photograph by Lowell Jackson
Thomas, courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London.) Fig. 2.3: Josef
Strzygowski, the Polish-Austrian art historian. (Photograph courtesy of the
Institut für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Wien.)
Fig. 2.4: Bell’s photo of an intricately carved engaged collonnette and capital on
the façade of the fourteenth-century al-Tawashi mosque, Aleppo. (Album J_078,
courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.) Fig. 2.5: Bell’s
photo of the Great Mosque in Aleppo. (Album J_053, courtesy of the Gertrude
Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)
Fig. 2.6: Bell’s photo of the inner façade of the doorway of the Khan al-Wazir, a
seventeenth-century caravanserai in Aleppo. (Album J_061, courtesy of the
Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.) Fig. 2.7: One of the stone
fragments of a large stele from Tell Ahmar. (Album J_127, courtesy of the
Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)
Fig. 2.8: A carved stone orthostat with the image of a winged, eagle-headed
genius. (Album J_138, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle
University.)
Fig. 2.9: A page from Bell’s field notebook. (Field Notebook GLB9, courtesy of
the Royal Geographical Society, London.)
Fig. 2.10: T.E. Lawrence and Leonard Woolley in 1913. (Photograph courtesy
of the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.)
Fig. 2.11a+b: Bell’s photo of the north tower tomb at Serrin, and the author’s
photograph of the same tower tomb in 2009. (Top: Album J_149, courtesy of the
Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University; bottom: photograph by Lisa
Cooper.) Fig. 2.12: Bell’s photograph of the ‘Water Gate’ at the site of Munbaqa
(her ‘Munbayah’). (Album J_162, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive,
Newcastle University.) Fig. 2.13: Bell’s photo of the Islamic-period castle Qalʽat
Jabbar. (Album J_169, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle
University.)
Fig. 2.14a: Bell’s 1909 detail of a baked brick façade above the gateway at the
medieval castle of Qalʽat Jabbar. (Album J_168, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell
Archive, Newcastle University.) Fig. 2.14b: Author's photograph of the same
feature shown in Fig. 2.14a. (Photograph by Lisa Cooper.)
Fig. 2.15: Bell’s photograph of the square brick minaret from the ruin field of
Raqqa. (Album J_181, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle
University.) Fig. 2.16: Bell’s photo of the impressive Baghdad Gate of Raqqa.
(Album J_179, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)
Fig. 2.17a: The four-storey tower of the Qasr al-Banat, a twelfth-century elite
residence at Raqqa. (Album J_180, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive,
Newcastle University.) Fig. 2.17b: Deep triangular indentations of the tower
shown in Fig. 2.17a. (Album J_183, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive,
Newcastle University.)