NEAF Saturday Seminar series | Lecture 1

18 May 2019

Dr Jamie Fraser

Derring-do and derring-don’t: Ill-fated travellers to the Levant in the 19th and early 20th centuries

Early British travellers were drawn to the Middle East by the prospect of exotic adventure. They faced dangers from banditry and disease, as well as from darker geo-political forces. Many did not return. In these lectures, Dr Jamie Fraser first examines stories of travellers to the ancient Hittite capital of Carchemish on the modern Syria-Turkey border. Such travellers include the famous ‘nude’ Assyriologist George Smith (who never left) and later T. E. Lawrence, whose left holding a deep personal sorrow that helps explain his heroism in WWI. Jamie then tells the intriguing story of Prof Edward Palmer, who went missing in the Sinai in 1882 while disguised as a Bedouin and carrying £3000 of gold sovereigns on behalf of the British Government.

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Hosted by the Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation (NEAF)

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