Britain and the Arab Middle East Read online

  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

  LISA COOPER

  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.)

  Fig. 2.18a+b: Bell’s photo of a room corner in the Qasr al-Banat. (Top: Album J_184, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University; bottom: photograph by Stephen Batiuk.)

  Fig. 2.1
9: Octagonal minaret of the twelfth century CE on the island of ‘Anah, in the Euphrates River, present-day Iraq. (Album J_223, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 2.20: Bell’s photo taken from the top of the minaret on the island of ‘Anah. (Album J_232, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.1: Shetateh, an oasis about four hours’ ride from Ukhaidir. (Album K_062, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.2: Bell’s photograph of the site of Ukhaidir from the north-east. (Album K_078, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.3: A page from Gertrude Bell’s field notebook, showing her sketch plan of the south-eastern sector of the Ukhaidir palace and her measurements. (Field Notebook GLB 11, Khethar 3, courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society.)

  Fig. 3.4: Bell recording one of Ukhaidir’s walls in her field notebook. (Album K_122, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.5: Plan of Ukhaidir, adapted from Bell’s published plan of the castle. (Adapted from Bell, Palace and Mosque, pl. 2.)

  Fig. 3.6: Bell’s photograph of the south-eastern corner of the interior of Ukhaidir’s enclosure wall. (Album K_105, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.7: Bell’s photograph of the Great Hall. (Album P_142, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.8: Bell’s photograph of the north-western interior corner of the blind arcaded Court of Honour. (Album P_177, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.9: The second and third storeys of the northern gateway block of the Ukhaidir palace, adapted from Bell’s 1914 published plan. (Adapted from Bell, Palace and Mosque, pl. 3.)

  Fig. 3.10: Reuther’s drawing of the southern part of the Court of Honour. (From Reuther, Ocheïdir, Taf. XXIVb, courtesy of the Archive of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft.)

  Fig. 3.11: Reuther’s reconstruction of the interior vaulting in the ceremonial Room 32. (From Reuther, Ocheïdir, Taf. XI, courtesy of the Archive of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft.)

  Fig. 3.12: Bell’s photograph of the south wall, east end of Room 32. (Album P_176b, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.13: One of the principal doors into the mosque court of the palace, from the north. (Album K_159, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.14: The south-eastern corner of the southern arcade of the mosque (no. 11). (Album P_156, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.15: Reuther’s reconstruction of the Court of Honour, facing the northern gateway block. (From Reuther, Ocheïdir, Taf. XXV, courtesy of the Archive of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft.)

  Fig. 3.16: Bell’s photograph of the pitched brick vaulted ceiling of the Great Hall in Ukhaidir’s palace. (Album P_143, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.17: A drawing of a pitched brick vault from the Neo-Assyrian site of Khorsabad. (From Architecture of the Islamic World, edited by George Michell, Thames & Hudson, London.)

  Fig. 3.18: Bell’s photograph of the remains of a groin vault, located in the north-western corner of Room 141 in the East Annex. (Album K_120, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.19: Bell’s photograph of the groin vault in the north-east angle of Corridor 28, with its plaster still intact. (Album K_168, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.20: Bell’s photograph of the south-western corner of the fluted dome in Room 4. (Album P_150, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.21: Squinch in one corner of Gallery 134 on the second storey of the palace’s northern gateway block. (Album K_178, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.22: South side of central Court B in one of the baits along the eastern side of the palace. (Album K_148, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.23: Bell’s photograph of the southern side of the mosque. (Album P_164, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 3.24: The eastern façade of Ukhaidir’s outer enclosure wall. (Album K_089, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.1: Gertrude Bell standing outside one of her tents at Babylon in April 1909. (Album K_218, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.2: Bell’s photo of Babylon’s excavation director, Robert Koldewey, sitting on the upper balcony of the German dig-house during her visit in April 1914. (Album Y_390, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.3: The German plan of Babylon, showing the architecture of the excavated areas. (From Koldewey, Die wiedererstehende Babylon, folding plan, courtesy of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft.)

  Fig. 4.4: Bell’s 1909 photo of the Ishtar Gate from the north, and surrounding brickwork. (Album K_202, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.5: Bell’s detail of some of the moulded brick reliefs of bulls and dragons on the Ishtar Gate. (Album K_206, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.6: Artist’s view over the city of Babylon, as it would have looked in Nebuchadnezzar’s time. (Oil on Canvas, by Maurice Bardin, 1936, after ‘View of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way’ by Herbert Anger, 1927. Oriental Institute digital image D.17475. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.)

  Fig. 4.7: Bell’s photograph of the Taq-i Kisra at Ctesiphon during her 1909 visit to that site, from the east. (Album K_227, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.8: Bell’s photograph of the exterior of the Taq-i Kisra from the south. (Album K_236, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.9: Bell’s photograph of the interior doorway and remains of a vault with ‘oversailing’ brickwork in the north-eastern corner of the south wing of the Taq-i Kisra at Ctesiphon. (Album L_003, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.10: Bell’s photograph of the British Residency in Baghdad in 1911, from across the Tigris River. (Album Q_038, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.11: Bell’s photograph of the thirteenth-century Bab Talisman in Baghdad, taken in 1909. (Album L_011, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.12: Bell’s 1909 photograph of the massive octagonal enclosure of Qadissiyya from the south-east at Samarra. (Album L_050, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.13: Bell’s 1909 photograph of the triple-vaulted Bab al-Amma Gate of the palace of Dar al-Khilafa at Samarra, c.836 CE. (Album L_082, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.14: Bell’s 1909 photograph of fragments of stucco work, presumed to come from the Dar al-Khilafa at Samarra, collected and placed outside Bell’s tent. (Album L_096, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.15: Bell’s 1909 view of the brickwork on the western side of the northern façade of the Qasr al-‘Ashiq at Samarra. (Album L_102, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.16: Bell’s 1909 plan of the Great Mosque of Samarra (c.847–61 CE) and its spiral minaret (the Malwiye). (Adapted from Bell, Amurath, Fig. 137.)

  Fig. 4.17: Bell’s 1909 photo of the surviving brickwork of the entrance to the Dar al-Imara on the south side of the qibla wall of the Great Mosque of Samarra. (Album L_062,courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.18: Bell’s photograph of the spiral minaret of the Abu Dulaf mosque at the northern end of Samarra, built by the caliph al-Mutawakkil, c.847–61 CE. (Album L_139, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.19:
Bell’s photograph of the mausoleum of Imam al-Dur at the northern end of the Samarra ruin fields, built in the eleventh century CE. (Album L_144, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.20: Photograph of Ernst Herzfeld as a young man. (Courtesy of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Museum für Islamische Kunst.)

  Fig. 4.21: Max van Berchem, the prominent Swiss scholar of Islamic art and archaeology and Arabic epigraphy. (Photograph courtesy of the Max van Berchem Foundation, Geneva.)

  Fig. 4.22: Bell’s 1909 photograph of Assur’s excavation director, Walter Andrae, feeding a gazelle. (Album L_187, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.23: Andrae’s charcoal-and-chalk drawing of the cityscape of ancient Assur. (Courtesy of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Baghdad Department.)

  Fig. 4.24: Bell’s 1909 composite photograph of Assur from the east. (Album L_172, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.25: Bell’s 1911 photograph of excavations in progress at Assur. (Album Q_221, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.26: Bell’s 1911 photograph of Assur workmen being paid at a table set up in the centre of the German expedition dig-house courtyard. (Album Q_224, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.27: Dinner in the German Expeditionshaus on the eve of Bell’s departure from Assur, 6 April 1911. (Album Q_225, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 4.28: Bell’s photograph of her servant, Fattuh, and another man, standing next to a pair of leaning human-headed winged lion-centaurs. (Album L_194, courtesy of the Gertrude Bell Archive, Newcastle University.)

  Fig. 5.1: Photograph of Eugénie Strong, a friend of Gertrude Bell, working as Librarian at Chatsworth House (1904–9). (Photograph courtesy of The Mistress and Fellows, Girton College, Cambridge.)

  Fig. 5.2: Photograph of the American archaeologist Esther Van Deman, and a Roman brick construction. (Photograph courtesy of the American Academy in Rome, Photographic Archive.)