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Looked at the Carchemish excarvation reports in the University Library. As they are so fragile you were not allowed to borrow them, one can only peruse them in the reading room (no scanning or photocopying allowed, I just took a few sneaky photographs).
Items from the Royal Cemetery of Ur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Sumerian, later third millennium BCE Gold and Lapis Lazuli
A Very Short Fact: On this day in 1888 famed archaeologist and British military officer T. E. Lawrence was born. Best known as ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, he played a key role in the Arab Revolt in the fight against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
“In 1914, just before World War I broke out, the Palestine Exploration Fund hired T. E. Lawrence to conduct an archaeological survey in southern Palestine. Better known today to the general public as “Lawrence of Arabia,” from the 1962 biographical film starring Peter O'Toole, Lawrence was an Oxford-trained archaeologist, receiving his degree in 1910. By the time he was hired by the PEF, he had already excavated at Byblos in what is today Lebanon, at Carchemish in what is now northern Syria, and with Petrie in Egypt.
In less than two months, Lawrence and his companion, Leonard Woolley, managed to survey and record many of the archaeological remains, from all periods, visible in the Negev desert and the Wadi Arabah. Unknown to most others, though, was that the archaeological survey was actually a cover for a British military mapping operation, concerned with the overland routes that an invading Ottoman army might take to reach Egypt in the event of war. Military matters aside, Lawrence and Woolley's report of their archaeological findings, titled “The Wilderness of Zin”, was published by the PEF in 1915 and is still used by scholars today.”
[P.29- Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction by Eric H. Cline.]
Like the Very Short Introductions on Facebook for more from the series.
Image credit: Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence by Lowell Thomas (1919). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Katharine Woolley (1888-1945) was a British archaeologist who is best remembered for being the wife of the famous Leonard Woolley, rather than her own achievements.
Woolley started working as a field assistant at the Ur excavations in 1924, Her initial role was drawing the findings for the catalogue, because the person originally assigned to the job could not draw. She proved to be a skilled illustrator; She became internationally recognized for her drawings of metal objects. Her work was often featured in the Illustrated London News, the major publication that promoted and popularized archaeological digs. Woolley later began partaking in the reconstruction of artifacts. Her most famous reconstruction is the famous headdress of Queen Puabi.
Katharine married Leonard Woolley in 1927, though the marriage was one of convenience. Marriage was her only option to remain on the dig after the funders expressed discomfort at the thought of an attractive young woman working in the field alone with a team of men. However, Katharine quickly became the second-in-command at the dig and helped direct the last season of excavations at Ur.
Katharine Woolley was notorious for her strong, authoritative personality and intelligence. Most of the workmen on the dig were reportedly terrified of her, and contemporaries described her with words like “ruthless,” “calculating,” and “poisonous.” Agatha Christie’s novel, Murder in Mesopotamia. It features a murder victim, under the name of Louise Leidner, the dominating and tyrannical wife of an archaeologist, whom Christie later admitted having based on her. Despite the countless number of controversies over her gender and personality, Katharine’s archaeological illustrations and reconstructions were critical to publicizing and promoting the discoveries at Ur. Without her contributions the importance of the Ur excavations would not have been recognized, and the success of her husband’s career was in no small part due to her work.
The British Museum expedition house in Carchemish, around 1913 and in its current state a few years ago. The present excavation team found a lot of ancient pottery shards, discarded by the British museum staff over a hundred years ago. Obviously Leonard Woolley and T.E. Lawrence broke quite a few of those precious Hittite cups they used to drink tea from. The archaeology team led by Professor Marchetti also discovered under the rabble the Roman mosaic floor TEL put in himself over a hundred years ago.
Friday 01 August 2025
Grand Strategy Newsletter
The View from Oregon – 352
The Role of the Ineffable in Science
…in which I discuss Leonard Woolley, Digging Up the Past, excavation, a science of science, ineffable observations, the gap between the knowable and the communicable, naturalistic explanations, post hoc rationalizations, paradigms of exposition, the rise of the journal article, and Bernard Bolzano on writing a treatise…
Substack: https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/the-role-of-the-ineffable-in-science
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_View_from_Oregon/comments/1mk9zwc/the_role_of_the_ineffable_in_science/
TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
Leonard Woolley on Digging Up the Past
Wednesday 17 April 2024 is the 144th anniversary of the birth of Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, better known to posterity as C. Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960), who was born on the outskirts of London on this day in 1880.
Woolley was the archaeologist who was chosen as Field Director for the joint University of Pennsylvania and British Museum excavation at Ur, and in this position her oversaw the recovery of some of the greatest treasures of the ancient world yet discovered. Woolley was an indefatigable worker, known for his long days and nights in the field, and his many popular books and lectures. He lacks the name recognition of Howard Carter, but this finds were of similar significance, and he stands at the head of archaeologists who have and are increasingly shaping our understanding of the past.
Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD
Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/
Text post: https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/leonard-woolley-on-digging-up-the
Video: https://youtu.be/kulAHTnt_8E
Podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/Leonard-Woolley-on-Digging-Up-the-Past-e2igon7
Pottery vessel with incised star on one side Excavated at Ur (Tell al-Muqayyar), Iraq Early Dynastic period (2900-2334 BCE)
Now in the British Museum, BM 128576
