Abstract
This paper examines the first publicly documented western encounter with the ancient city of Palmyra as an archaeological site. This encounter was achieved in the late seventeenth century by a group of British merchants, who reached Palmyra and made drawings and reports of its ruins. The reports were then published in Philosophical Transactions in the mid 1690s. This paper points to the ways in which such accounts came into being, as well as how the city was described and publicly communicated for the first time in Philosophical Transactions. These articles had a great impact throughout the following centuries as a reference for the study of Palmyra. This paper therefore also stresses the pivotal role of Philosophical Transactions for the production and dissemination of Palmyra's archaeological legacy, as well as for the development of early modern archaeology within the early Royal Society.
Highlights
In the morning of 4 October 1691 a group of 30 men arrived at the ancient city of Palmyra, in the middle of the Syrian desert.[1]
This paper examines the first publicly documented western encounter with the ancient city of Palmyra as an archaeological site
This encounter was achieved in the late seventeenth century by a group of British merchants, who reached Palmyra and made drawings and reports of its ruins
Summary
In the morning of 4 October 1691 a group of 30 men arrived at the ancient city of Palmyra, in the middle of the Syrian desert.[1]. The journal proposed guidebooklike articles for travellers, with guidelines and suggestions for seamen and explorers.[8] The importance of travels and travel accounts had already been mentioned by Francis Bacon in his Novum Organum as well as in his essay Of Travel and was certainly in line with the empirical approach envisioned and conceived at the Royal Society.[9] This paper will point to the role of contributions such as those on Palmyra on shaping the scholarly programme of Philosophical Transactions itself In this sense, the continental impact of these reports should be understood as essential to their success. The dissemination of the reports on a European scale—including France, The Netherlands and Italy—demonstrate their international appeal as well as the fertile network of scholarship on which they could expand
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