Overview

This book focuses on three important British travellers to Crete during the 18th and 19th centuries to establish whether or not they made any significant contribution to the field of research with regard to the archaeological heritage of Bronze Age Crete. It is an attempt to bring these 'lost pioneers' of antiquity to the fore and to recognize their efforts as part of the foundation of the discovery of the island's Bronze Age archaeology prior to the ground-breaking excavations of Sir Arthur Evans. The three travellers examined here are Richard Pococke (1704–65), Robert Pashley (1805–59) and Thomas Spratt (1811–88).Having dealt with the terms that these travellers used in describing ancient remains, the book looks briefly at the background to Bronze Age Crete itself. Thereafter the development from antiquarianism into archaeology is followed to establish the motives behind these travellers' wanderings in Crete. This also involves a discussion of other British travellers to Crete and problems they may have encountered with an island in the throes of Ottoman turbulence.Using their published journals, the author has followed the footsteps of Pococke, Pashley and Spratt to see what they may have discovered, and compared their written accounts with what is physically there today. The results are most intriguing.

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9781443851466

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Reviews

'There is a great deal of merit in this book. The attempts to rescue the work of three scholars/ travellers/antiquarians from semi-obscurity in archaeological historiography is certainly worthy, particularly as it casts further light on the academic methodology of Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos, and the steps followed by the three pioneers, overcoming the difficulties presented in the changes in toponyms in these last two hundred years. It certainly adds to our understanding of prehistoric Crete.' - Professor Margarita Diaz-Andreu, ICREA - Universitat de Barcelona

Author Information

Dudley Moore is a barrister and a Lecturer in both Law and Aegean Archaeology. He studied Law as an undergraduate at Sussex University and Aegean Archaeology as a postgraduate at Brasenose College at Oxford University. He returned to Sussex University for his DPhil in Archaeology, on which this book is based. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

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