GARP Lecture at British Museum

Nick Saunders will be speaking at the British Museum on Thursday 1st December

Lawrence and the Arab Revolt: archaeology of a desert insurgency 1916–1918

Thursday 1 December 2016,  16.00–17.00
BP Lecture Theatre
Free, booking essential
Between 2005 and 2014, Bristol University’s ‘Great Arab Revolt Project’ investigated the archaeology and anthropology of the Arab Revolt of 1916–1918 in southern Jordan.
The discoveries were extraordinary. Expecting to find only the ruins of Hejaz Railway stations destroyed by T E Lawrence and the Arabs, they discovered instead a vast conflict landscape of guerrilla actions and counter-insurgency tactics unknown to anyone except the Bedouin. In this lecture, Nicholas Saunders, University of Bristol, reveals the Ottoman army camps, railway ambushes, Rolls-Royce armoured car raiding camps, hilltop forts, machinegun strong-points, and a long-forgotten Royal Flying Corps landing strip that all emerged from the desert where modern guerrilla warfare was forged. Ten years of fieldwork investigated the archaeology of conflict produced in less than 18 months, from August 1917 until November 1918.
This event forms the 2016 Palestine Exploration Fund Evans Memorial Lecture jointly with ASTENE.

LINK

More media reports relating to the exhibition at Newark.

There is also a video describing the exhibition on the National Civil War Centre's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NationalCivilWarCentre/

Exhibition News

Shifting Sands - Lawrence of Arabia and the Great Arab Revolt

The exhibition which features the work of the project will take place in Newark, UK between October 2016 and the Spring of 2017.  Items on display will include artefacts found by the team in various important sites associated with the Great Arab Revolt, including Lawrence's secret desert camp, sites of battle between the opposing forces, Ottoman camp sites and the location of the train ambush.  

Details of the exhibition will be available online via the museum information available at The National Civil War Museum, Newark, where the exhibition is being mounted. 

Video: The Making of the Middle East 1914-1918: Lawrence of Arabia's War

Lawrence and the rise of ISIS

Guardian and Guardian letters: Lawrence of Arabia and the Rise of ISIS. Click picture below for the article

Jan Woolf has a letter referring to her upcoming play. Click picture below for link to the letters.

Portsmouth Book Launch event

As part of Portsmouth Festivities, another book launch event:
20 Jun 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
St John’s College Auditorium and Drama Studio PO5 3QW

Click image for event details

More World Wide coverage

A selection of further reports of the project from around the world.

Smithsonian

Science Bulletin

Fox News

UPI

Bristol University - first article

Bullet indicates Lawrence of Arabia was no liar

A bullet fired by Lawrence of Arabia during one of his most famous acts of guerrilla warfare has been discovered in the Arabian desert by a team of archaeologists, led by the University of Bristol, confirming the accuracy of Lawrence’s own account of the attack in his war memoir Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Link to full article

More press reports and a radio interview

More is revealed about the places and discoveries during the project.

Guardian Article 1st April 2016 - the Colt bullet

Daily Mail article - Lawrences's Camp and the service rum jar

BBC Radio 4 interview with Neil Faulkner

Newspaper reports of the project and ongoing progress

The Times and the Daily Mail both carry articles on the GARP project today. Links below.

Blast from the Past shows Lawrence was no liar - The Times

Bullet that proves Lawrence of Arabia’s tall tales of desert heroics weren’t as outlandish as the cynics said. - Daily Mail 

Bullet found by GARP team at Hallat Ammar

Map of train ambush at Hallat Ammar

Update March 2016: Post excavation work moves forward

UPDATE March 2016: Publications are now beginning to come on stream, and there are plans for an exhibition later this year, together with the opening of a new play about Lawrence. The first event is a seminar at King's College London, relating to Neil Faulkner's new book:

Lecture

Free entry

Lawrence of Arabia’s War

6.30pm, 23 May 2016

Edmond J Safra Lecture Theatre

Ground Floor, King’s College London

The Strand, London, WC2R 2LS

Liar and charlatan, or military genius? Agent of British imperialism, or advocate of Arab nationalism? The debate about T E Lawrence has raged for a century. Following ten years’ fieldwork in the Arabian desert, Bristol University’s Neil Faulkner reassesses the man, evaluates his achievements, and offers new insight into the ongoing Middle Eastern crisis. Neil will be selling copies of his new book, Lawrence of Arabia’s War, at the lecture.

More details of which may be found here:

There will be other similar events around the country in due course, so don't feel you have to come to the London event if you are a distance away. There will be other opportunities.