Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent Volume III Southern Arabia and Persia by Mrs. Bent The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent Volume III: Southern Arabia and Persia by Mrs. Bent. Our systems have detected unusual traffic activity from your network. Please complete this reCAPTCHA to demonstrate that it's you making the requests and not a robot. If you are having trouble seeing or completing this challenge, this page may help. If you continue to experience issues, you can contact JSTOR support. Block Reference: #a60636a0-cf15-11eb-8ad2-d79d3229e8cf VID: #(null) IP: 116.202.236.252 Date and time: Thu, 17 Jun 2021 02:42:25 GMT. The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent Volume III: Southern Arabia and Persia by Mrs. Bent. With Theodore and Mabel Bent in southern Arabia (1893-1897) Gerald Brisch. This article marks the publication this year of TheTravel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent. Volume III: Southern Arabia and Persia: Mabel Bent's diaries of 1893-1898, from the archive of the Joint Library of the Hellenic and Roman Societies, . Edited and introduced by Gerald Brisch. Archaeopress, Oxford. ISBN 9781905739134. Theodore and Mabel Bent married in 1877; he was then 25 and she some five years older. They were to form a close, if childless, partnership through many shared journeys of travel and , financed largely from their own resources. Their first notable excursion was to and the Cyclades in 1882-84. Theodore, assisted by his wife, made detailed notes on the history, archaeology and anthropology of theAegean islands which provided material for a successful book: The Cyclades, or Life Among the Insular Greeks (1885). As travelogue and record of local tradition this account is still unsurpassed in English. During the next few years the Bents turned their attention to Asia Minor, and briefly, in 1889, to and Persia. Theodore's excavation of burial mounds in Bahrain was partly inspired by ancient theories that the island was the early home of the Phoenicians. He was also impressed by the speculation that the Phoenicians, having migrated to Southern Africa, had founded '' in Mashonaland, and that this once great city was in some way linked to the legend of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. So in 1891 Theodore embraced the opportunity of mounting an expedition to excavate the ruins of 'Great Zimbabwe'. This was to be at the joint expense of the British Company and the Royal Geographical Society, and proved a pivotal moment inTheodore's career as explorer and archaeologist. Theodore Bent. Portrait by Lafayette. Private collection. All the couple's researches after their trip to Mashonaland were linked to Theodore's studies and theories of early communication between civilisations existing west and east of the . In 1893 the Bents undertook a hazardous four month journey in north eastern reaching the ancient city of Aksum in their search for (Sabaean) inscriptions which might link 'Great Zimbabwe' to the old trade routes leading to Egypt and Southern Arabia. Their journey home was via Aden where Theodore's discussions at the British Residency encouraged him to make plans to visit Mukalla and the interior of in the winter of 1893. Mabel Bent. An anonymous society portrait. Private collection. Back in London, in a lecture to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Theodore announced that he had found in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia the remains of a Sabaean civilisation which had come over from Southern Arabia and had moved down the east coast of Africa. He hoped soon, he said, to be able to 'reconstruct the history of a once mighty commercial race, which was contemporaneous with the best days of Egypt, Greece and Rome and which provided the ancient world with most of its most valued luxuries'. Theodore's past disinclination to seek Ottoman clearance for his in Asia Minor had embarrassed British consular officials, and had tarnished his reputation within the Foreign Office. When he sought permission to mount an expedition to Southern Arabia, the damaging Foreign Office view that he was 'neither discreet nor altogether trustworthy' was passed to the India Office. Permission was initially refused on the grounds that: 'in the present disturbed state of Arabia no countenance or assistance should be given by the authorities at Aden to British travellers to enable them to visit the interior. Such visits would not be sanctioned by theTurkish government which has repeatedly complained of the presence of Englishmen in the country'. However, Theodore was able to enlist the support of the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the President of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) to lobby British officialdom on his behalf and to emphasise the potential scientific dividends of his proposed expedition. Meanwhile, Theodore confirmed that he had no intention of travelling in or near Ottoman-occupied Yemen. Whitehall eventually relented, arrangements for the expedition were completed and the Bents arrived in Aden in December 1893. But the expedition got off to an inauspicious start. Theodore, who had been assured of official support by the Assistant Resident, Colonel Stace, when he visited Aden at the beginning of the year, found the Resident, Brigadier-General Jopp, thoroughly disobliging. He and Mabel regarded Jopp's attitude as a major slight towards them and the prestigious institutions which they represented. Instead of the substantial help which he was anticipating (and no doubt felt was due to him and Mabel for their work in Africa), the expedition only received brief letters of introduction to the local authorities in Mukalla. The slight is referred to frequently by Mabel in her chronicle and it clearly rankled. In a letter to the Secretary of the RGS, Scott Keltie, Theodore wrote: 'I cannot make out why it is but I have never in my life been treated by authorities so rudely as I have been at Aden. Col. Stace has unfortunately gone to India and people here seem amazed with him for having imported such troublesome people as ourselves. Gen. Jopp absolutely refuses to endorse Stace's promise of lending rifles, and as for the gunboat there is no thought of it and I have to pay �40 to get to Maculla next Friday. All he has done and all he will do is to give us 2 short letters to the Sheikhs of Maculla and Shehr, according to instructions from home. He would 28 Mabel Bent. An anonymous society portrait. Private collection not see me for 2 days after our arrival and then in half an hour he managed to be as insolent as he could be . ' Despite not being given the assistance he was expecting, Theodore decided to proceed with the expedition. Its members formed the largest party which he and Mabel had ever travelled with. In addition to them and their faithful Greek servant, Matthaios, it included a senior Indian surveyor, Imam Sharif, loaned by the Government of India together with three assistants for mapping;a young botanist from Kew, William Lunt, for plant collecting; an Egyptian, Mahmoud Bayoumi, from the 's Natural History section; and an interpreter recommended by a member of the Aden Residency's Arab staff but whose obstreperous behaviour proved 'a constant source of difficulty and danger'. The Bents� devoted Greek factotum and friend, Matthaios Simos, in old age. Photograph � Andreas Michalopoulos 2010. A few months before the Bents arrived in Southern Arabia, a German scholar, Leo Hirsch, reached Wadi Hadhramaut in search of Himyaritic inscriptions. He wasthe first European to penetrate so far inland. Although the Bents followed, Mabel could justly claim to be the first European woman to visit the Wadi (preceding Doreen Ingrams who went there in 1934, and Freya Stark in 1935). The Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) hold in their archives a fascinating volume relating to the Bents' 1894 expedition. This includes a copy of Lunt's journal and lists of specimens collected. The RBG also hold a number of letters from Mabel and Theodore Bent in their files of 'Directors' Correspondence'. The plants sent to Kew by the Bents are recorded in the RBG 'Plant Determination Lists for Arabia and Nubia'. Actual specimens collected by Lunt in the Hadhramaut are also held in the Kew Herbarium. The zoological collections were more limited but specimens sent to London included some creatures described as being 'new to science'. The Bents' devoted Greek factotum, Matthaios Simos, from the Cycladic island of Anafi, is mentioned in Mabel's South Arabian chronicles. The Bents had met him on Naxos during the winter of 1883-4, and they had engaged his services on most of their later journeys. He is encountered again in Mabel's diaries for 1897, when he plays a part in saving her life. Matthaios later settled with his young family in Athens where today his descendants still live. Mabel used two notebooks to chronicle the couple's travels to the Hadhramaut in 1893-4. The first includes the party's preparations in Aden (December 1893) and subsequent sea voyage to Mukalla. Mabel then details their slow progress inland to Al-Koton (al-Qatn) in Wadi Hadhramaut, which becomes their base for a month while they try to arrange guides to take them into Wadi Masila and down to Sayhut on the southern coast. When this fails, she chronicles their shorter journey (March 1894) to Sheher (Shihr). The second notebook continues with their short exploration east along the coast to Kossair (Qusa'ir) before returning to 30 Shihr, whence they take ship via Mukalla for Aden and the long journey home. On this trip, as on previous expeditions, Theodore was a keen sketcher while Mabel assumed the role of expedition photographer, carrying with her all the materials and equipment she would need for developing during her travels. Her diary contains frequent accounts of the difficulties she faced as a pioneer in this field. Unfortunately only a very few of her images have survived. Some feature in Southern Arabia which was written up by Mabel from Theodore's journals and her own for publication in 1900, three years after Theodore's death. Other images feature in Theodore's monographs and articles or appeared in the form of presentation slides which Mabel prepared for her husband's lectures. At these Theodore also exhibited some of his small assemblage of archaeological finds. A number of the latter were acquired by the British Museum where they join his other finds from the eastern Mediterranean and Africa. At the end of 1896 the Bents paid a further visit to the region, spending two months in Soqotra. They then returned to Aden and in February 1897 travelled north east to territory inhabited by the Fadhli and Yafa'i tribes. During this trip Theodore was struck down by malaria. He later contracted pneumonia and died in May 1897 a few days after their return to . Mabel lived on until 1929. Dilmun Burial Mounds. are a UNESCO World Heritage Site [1] comprising necropolis areas on the main island of ( ﻣﺪاﻓﻦ دﻟﻤﻮن :The Dilmun Burial Mounds (Arabic Bahrain dating back to the Dilmun and the Umm al-Nar culture. Bahrain has been known since ancient times as an island with a very large number of burials, the (originally) quite a number of square kilometres of mounds were said to be one of the largest cemeteries in the ancient world. The cemeteries are concentrated in the north of the island, on the hard stony areas slightly above the arable farming soils – the south of the island is mainly sandy and desert-like. Recent studies have shown that the estimated/approximately 350,000 ancient grave mounds could have been solely produced by the local population over a number of thousands of years [ vague ] . The graves are not all of the same era, or of exactly the same styles, and can vary considerably in size in different areas of the moundfield. Research, under the auspices of the Bahrain National Museum (with the Bahrain Historical and Archaeological Society taking a keen interest), is still continuing, to establish a firm timeline for all these variations and continuations, as well as considering the implications for the society or societies that produced them. Ihr Link zur Ex Libris-Reader-App. Geben Sie Ihre E-Mail-Adresse oder Handynummer ein und Sie erhalten einen direkten Link, um die kostenlose Reader-App herunterzuladen. Die Ex Libris-Reader-App ist für iOS und Android erhältlich. Weitere Informationen zu unseren Apps finden Sie hier. Kartonierter Einband 456 Seiten. Kartonierter Einband. Beschreibung. Klappentext Mabel Virginia Anna Hall-Dare was the extraordinary wife of the English explorer and archaeologist James Theodore Bent. In the early 1880s the couple began a fifteen-year series of highly-regarded geographical! archaeological and ethnographical researches in the eastern Mediterranean! Africa and Arabia. Zusammenfassung Mabel Virginia Anna Hall-Dare was the extraordinary wife of the English explorer and archaeologist James Theodore Bent. In the early 1880s the couple began a fifteen-year series of highly-regarded geographical! archaeological and ethnographical researches in the eastern Mediterranean! Africa and Arabia. Inhaltsverzeichnis Bahrein and Persia! 1889: The Hadhramaut! 1893- 5; Socotra and the lands of the Fadhli and Yafai! 1896-7. Personal letters! documents! maps! and Mabel Bent's own photographs contribute to this important insight into the lives of two of the great British travellers of the nineteenth century. Bahrein and Persia, 1889: The Hadhramaut, 1893-5; Socotra and the lands of the Fadhli and Yafai, 1896-7. Personal letters, documents, maps, and Mabel Bent's own photographs contribute to this important insight into the lives of two of the great British travellers of the nineteenth century. The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent Volume III: Southern Arabia and Persia by Mrs. Bent. There are several historical sources about what and how people in the Dhofar region ate in the past; here I would like to highlight a few authors. (the photo by Salwa Hubais is of bidah , the bulb from the white flower, gladiolus candidus, which is cooked and eaten) Bent, James. “Exploration of the Country, Southern Arabia.” The Geographical Journal 6.2, 1895, 109-33. Bent, James and Mabel Bent. Southern Arabia . London: Elibron, [1900] 2005. Bent, Mabel. The Travel Chronicles of Mrs. J. Theodore Bent, Volume III: Deserts of Vast Eternity, Southern Arabia and Persia . Gerald Brisch, ed. London: Archaeopress, 2010. Theodore and Mabel Bent were in the Dhofar region from December 20, 1893 until January 23, 1894. During their short stay, they traveled along the coast and a short distance in the mountains; I believe they are the first Westerners to visit the Dhofar mountains and write a description of it. In Southern Arabia (1900/ 2005), they recount that along the coast they saw coconut palms, “bright green fields,” “[t]obacco, cotton, Indian corn, and various species of grain” (233); as well as gardens with “the plantain, the papya, mulberries, melons, chilis, brinjols [eggplants], and fruits and vegetables of various descriptions” (234). During their journey through the mountains, they saw the still-used method of cooking meat on heated stones (250); plant-life including sycamores, acacia, jessamine, convolvulus, maidenhair ferns and fig trees (256); and describe how rice was eaten (275). They also met an elderly sheikh who had 500 head of cattle and 70 camels (250). Thomas, Bertram. Arabia Felix: Across the Empty Quarter of Arabia . Jonathan Cape: London 1932. reprint. In Arabia Felix (1932) Thomas recounts his journey across the Rub al Kahli (Empty Quarter) in the fall/ winter of 1930. His trip started in Salalah, so there are a few food references. For example, at the home of a prosperous merchant, he is given a meal of “beef grilled crisp and black, spaghetti drenched in tomato sauce, and slices of pineapple” (19). During a short trip in the mountains, he explains that the Gibali diet was milk, honey and beef (51) and that hyena, fox and “eggs, chicken and all manner of birds are under strict taboo” (59). He also discusses the custom of killing half of a man’s cows at his death (55-56). Janzen, Jorg. Nomads in the Sultanate of Oman: Tradition and Development in Dhofar . London: Westview Press, 1986. Janzen, who did his fieldwork from January to August 1977 and January to May 1978 (xxi), identifies nine bands of vegetation: the coastline belt, grassland of coastal plain, bush and tree vegetation of the foothills and escarpment, grassland of the lower and middle levels of the plateau, bush and tree vegetation of the mountain wadi area, grassland of the upper plateau, desert vegetation of the transition zone to the Nejd, desert vegetation of the Negd and sand desert vegetation (34-35). He notes that there “are many indications that the plateaus were once more thickly wooded than they are now” and that the “last stands of trees” on the coastal plain were cut down in the 1960s (35). He discusses the traditional “monsoon-rain fields” in which millet and beans are grown along with cucumbers, tobacco, maize, “red” (chili) peppers, and tomatoes in the mountains (107, drawing 106, details of planting 108). In the mid-1950s, when diesel pumps could bring up water faster and cheaper than animal labor, crops included millet, wheat, maize, “watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplants, onions and peppers,” as well as bananas, papayas and coconuts (154). In the mid-1970s, the composition of plantations changed in that cereals were no longer sown given that corn and flour became easily available and that land was given over to fruits and vegetables which were in higher demand (154). His book also includes important historical data such as balance of trade data for 1896 which lists the top six exports: incense, butter fat ( samn ), cotton, skins, latex, sharks’ fins; and top six imports: rice, sugar, cotton cloth, dates, coffee, wheat (47) and a chart on the “Movement of Livestock Prices in Dhofar” for cattle, camels and goats with data from 1965-70, 1971-75 ad 1976-78, showing, for example, the cost of a milk cow as 40-100 OR in 1971-75 and 250-330 OR in 1976-78 (102).