A Pilgrim's Scrip

This 1915 work describes Thompson's life 'in the field' at various archaeological sites in Egypt, the Sudan and western Asia.

Reginald Campbell Thompson (Author)

9781108082228, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 February 2016

426 pages, 32 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.54 kg

The Assyriologist and archaeologist Reginald Campbell Thompson (1876–1941) studied Hebrew at Cambridge and upon graduation moved into the department of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities at the British Museum, where he developed remarkable skill in matching fragments of cuneiform tablets and transcribing their texts. He excavated at Nineveh and later produced a definitive edition of the trilingual inscription of Darius at Behistan in Iran. This 1915 work describes Thompson's life 'in the field' at various sites in Egypt, the Sudan and western Asia. The difficulties and dangers of travel, the encounters with local people, and the management of an excavation are all described with enthusiasm and in melodramatic terms. Thompson lovingly records the daily life and traditions of the pre-1914 Middle East, perhaps feeling that he was witnessing a world that would soon be radically changed by the war. His Semitic Magic (1908) is also reissued in this series.

Author's note
1. The handmaid of Clio
2. Mosul, 1904
3. From Mosul to Behistun
4. From Mosul to Damascus
5. Kodak Sinaiticus, 1902
6. Tarablus el-Gharb, 1903
7. The Sudan, 1906
8. Feminie, 1909
9. Carchemish, 1911
10. Envoy
Index.

Subject Areas: Archaeology by period / region [HDD]