Rediscovery Flashcards
1
Q
Royal Danish Arabia Expedition
A
- 1761–1767
- Carsten Niebuhr - only survivor of the expedition
- Major expedition sent by King of Denmark, starting in Istanbul, travelling through Egypt, Arabia, India, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and back to Istanbul
2
Q
Napoleon Bonaparte
A
- Leads a military expedition to Egypt, when a general, not yet an Emperor in 1798, in order to capture it and cause problems for the British in India
- Brings with him a scientific committee to record the natural history and ancient monuments in Egypt as part of a great encyclopedic record of the country
- Expedition ended in failure- British throw French out after a few years but Description De L’Egypte written over multiple volumes, 1809-1822
- Tomb plans sanitize the monuments - straighten out lines in tomb designs, not fully accurate but still helpful due to the damage and destruction of the last few centuries
- Primary source on Egypt for many years, especially for pictures of genuine Egyptian material, and the first maps of Egypt
3
Q
Rosetta Stone
A
- Stone tablet which has the same message written in Hieroglyphic Egyptian, Demotic Egyptian and Greek
- Issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V
- Tax decree written when the Greeks were ruling 2nd c BC
- Found in 1799, led to deciphering of both forms of Egyptian
- Physicist Thomas Young began working on it but the final breakthrough was made by Jean-François Champollion in 1822
4
Q
Franco-Tuscan Expedition to Egypt
A
- 1828
- Led by Rosalini and Champallion - both died soon after arriving home, and due to disputes between their estate holders, two separate works were published instead of the join one they had planned - French and Italian copies are not exact duplicates
- Fully funded by state and publications also funded
- Contrasts British model where expeditions and publications are self-financed as the state doesn’t care
5
Q
Biblical Archaeology
A
- Problematic term - come to mean the archaeology of Palestine, not necessarily of the bible, and not necessarily religiously motivated
- Danger is that stories from the bible are forced onto sites to fit their narratives
6
Q
(American) Palestine Exploration Society
A
- 1870-84
- Aimed far more at excavating the bible from a religious perspective, unlike the Palestine Exploration Fund
7
Q
Society of Biblical Archaeology
A
- British organisation, 1870-1919
- Important figures include Birch and Renouf - curators of Egyptology in the British Museum and presidents of the Society
- Biblical archaeology in the late 19th century embraced the whole of the Near East as it was all mentioned in the bible somewhere
8
Q
Hisarlık (‘Troy’)
A
- Excavated by Heinrich Schliemann over a period of 20 years 1871-1889
- Site in Anatolia thought to be Troy
- Found layers of earlier cities, one of which he thought was Troy, although this has since been found to be too early compared to when the Iliad was set - did prove the existence of a pre-Bronze Age Aegean
- Found jewellery set here which he name Priams Treasure - named after a character form the Iliad but still too early
9
Q
Amelia Edwards
A
- 1831-1892
- British novelist and travel writer
- Produced A Thousand Miles up the Nile, which becomes a best seller
- Became personally involved with Egypt, and recognised the level of destruction of monuments to fuel the desires of collectors in the west, and the damage to monuments for INdustrialisation
- Recognised the chronic lack of money of the Egyptian Antiquities Service to deal with this
- Campaigned for a British organisation to deal with these issues
- Led to the founding of the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1882
10
Q
Post 1920
A
- Division of the Ottoman empire makes things difficult due to different rules in different places
- Tutankhamun, 1922
- Michael Ventris, deciphers Aegean Script Linear B in 1950
11
Q
End of Paganism and Languages
A
- Mycenae abandoned at the end of the Bronze Age
- Babylon fell in the 6th century BC
- Archaeological sites destroyed, go out of use
- Sites reinterpreted e.g. Wadi el-Sabua, turned into a church - buildings preserved but ancient decoration destroyed
- Egyptian paganism ends 4th c AD in Philae, the last stronghold of paganism and the last hieroglyphic texts in 394 AD - longer than cuneiform
- Our connection to the past suffers as ancient texts and languages go out of use - largely due to association with paganism in the face of Christianity
- Last known Cuneiform text: AD 75, and not a well known or widely used by this point
- Texts effectively become unreadable
12
Q
Impact of Christianity/ Islam
A
- Triumph of Islam mid 7th century
- Even more hostile to the pagan past than Christianity
- Area largely made inaccessible to foreigners, particularly after the crusades, until the early 16th century when the Mediterranean comes under the rule of the Ottoman Empire
- Provides stability and access to the eastern Med by Western travellers, particularly to Egypt and to religious sites in Israel/Holy Land
13
Q
Principle sources in the 17th Century
A
- Limited knowledge and understanding of the Med Past
- Key sources: The Old Testament, Manetho, Herodotus, Homer, Diodorus, Caldaeus - some largely mythological, many only exist in extracts from other books, and contradict eachother
- Herodotus focused on Mesopotamia but rewrote dubious stories told to him by tour guides
14
Q
18th century Travelers
A
- Visitors become more organised
- Fredrick Norden - sent to Egypt by king of Denmark in 1738
- Irish Bishop Richard Pococke sent in 1738 to Egypt, Palestine and Israel (Holy Land sites)
- Pococke one of the first to attempt architectural sketches of what he sees, including the Pyramids of Giza including cross sections and tomb chambers and the Sphinx
- Issue with his depictions is that he is not familiar with Med style of art and architecture - they have been taught to draw using classical principles so all pictures come out looking more Greek/Roman/Classical than accurate - stylized
15
Q
Georg Friedrich Grotefend
A
- 1775-1853
- Partial decipherment translation of Old Persian Cuneiform
- Start made but not deciphered properly until significantly later on
16
Q
National Collections
A
- Early 19th century - beginning of national museums such as British Museum (created in mid 18th c) with large national collections of Med material
- Large amount of this material came from Napoleon and was seized by the British in 1801 when French surrender
17
Q
Muhammed Ali Pasha
A
- Governor of Egypt 1805-1848
- Egypt part of Ottoman Empire but he wanted to make country as independent as possible - had relationships with leaders of great powers and their consul generals, who were interested in the past and Egypt’s antiquities
- Ali gave many permission to take and excavate antiquities - on behalf of themselves to sell to their countries, not on behalf of their countries - often disappointed
18
Q
Key figures (consuls)
A
- Bernardino Drovetti (1776-1852) - collection ended up in Turin and Paris Italian consul
- Henry Salt - 1780-1872 - collection ended up in Paris and London British consul
19
Q
Giovanni Batistta Belzoni
A
- Italian employed by Henry Salt
- Circus strong man (7ft!), Engineer, Magician, All round legend
- Wrote one of the first detailed accounts of excavations in Egypt - considered a tomb robber but actually good for his era
- Bought many antiquities back to the British Museum
- Belzoni’s own exhibition held in the Egyptian style Egyptian Hall, Picadilly, 1812-1905
