THE ARCHAEOREADER
WHERE A LOVE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND READING MEET
WHERE A LOVE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND READING MEET
After reading Brenna Hassett's Built on Bones where she frequently talked about her archaeological excursions into Turkey, Syria, and Jordan, I was in the mood for my own literary adventure into the Levant. I hadn't read an Agatha Christie since December (for The ABC Murders adaptation with John Malkovich, did you see it?) and since reading about pioneering paleontologist Mary Anning last Fall, I've been wanting to learn about another TrowelBlazer, Gertrude Bell, and then what with March being Women's History Month and all, well, two books seemed the perfect pairing: They Came to Baghdad and A Woman in Arabia. "Are you the persecuted heroine or the wicked adventuress." --Richard Baker in They Came to Baghdad
Spies? Political intrigue? Savvy ladies? Exotic travel? Archaeology? And even a little romance? Can it be possible to find all of these things and more not just in an Agatha Christie novel but in real life? The answer is yes, yes you can, if you're Gertrude Bell. "We had...a most delicious camp in the top of a mountain, Jebel Rakham. I climbed the rocks and found flowers in the crevices--not a great bounty, but in this barren land a feast to the eyes..." Gertrude Bell, February 24, 1914 Part travelogue, part diary, and part poli-sci history, Georgina Howell's edited biography, A Woman in Arabia: the Writings of the Queen of the Desert encapsulates the life of one of THE most influential women in the last 100 years (her own death centennial is coming up in seven years (2026)). Using letters, diary entries, accounts from contemporaries, and white papers written on the British administration of Iraq, Syria, and India, Howell structures Bell's journey to becoming 'Queen of the Desert' in an unusual way. Rather than presenting Gertrude Bell's life chronologically she does so by the many roles and personalities Bell takes on throughout her life so what we see is is Bell as: The Linguist, The Poet, The Person, The Mountaineer, the Archaeologist, the Desert Traveler, The Lover, The Prisoner, The War Worker, The Intrusives, The Nation Builder, The King Maker, and The Courtier. Having read Michelle Obama's Becoming as my last biography/memoir not too long ago, where she describes 'being oneself' a constantly evolving process, I really liked this way of contextualizing a person's identity. Though, this framework might not be for everyone. If you crave linear story lines, this might not be for you. As a Nation Builder, Bell is notable for her role in creating modern Iraq. But don't be too quick to call her the female "Laurence of Arabia." This mountain-climbing, polyglot, was the first woman to receive first-class honors in history from Oxford AND an accomplished archaeologist in her own right. I found T.H. Lawrence and Bell's interactions with each other during WWI absorbing. Though they were never close friends I liked learning that they had a strong bond. Lawrence wrote of Gertrude to her sister (after her death) saying: "She stood out as the one person who, thinking clearly, saw the true work with the Arabs and, daunted by nothing, worked unsparing of herself toward it." In her role as an archaeologist, Bell is best known for founding the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad (1923), establishing excavation permits requiring standards, introducing early antiquity law that limited archaeological investigations and that a percentage of an investigations findings (i.e. artifacts) be curated with the Museum, as well as documenting such world treasures as the Palace of Ukhaidir and Tur Abdin. Of which you can read about in her reports: Palace and Mosque Ukhaidir (1914) Churches and Monasteries of Tur Abdin and Neighboring Districts (1913) As for romance, Bell's relationship with Dick Doughty-Wylie is the stuff of (dare I say it?) Downtown Abbey. A wealthy, intelligent, headstrong woman born in County Durham, England, making her place in the world (in this case Mesopotamia) meets her match in a married, British Army Lieutenant. Passionate letters and a tragic-ending at the Battle of Gallipoli had me all at once, smitten, crushed, and as a glutton for punishment, thinking about re-watching the 1981 film Gallipoli with Mel Gibson. At times, I did struggle keeping my interest in "A Woman in Arabia" (especially during the later chapters when some of the government documents were excerpted verbatim) and found the audio book a great way to keep me going. In fact, if it wasn't for the audio book I would have missed out on an amazing listening experience while getting lost in the Gertrude Bell Archive at Newcastle University. I definitely recommend listening to Bell travel from Aleppo to Istanbul via Baghdad, Mosul, and Konya while clicking your way through her photography collection!
Learn MoreThe Gertrude Bell Society British Museum's changing role in Iraqi Archaeology U.S. Dept of Defense Cultural Property Training: Iraq I have hyper-linked to sources where appropriate/available. All links and sources were electronically accessed between March 11-16, 2019.
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