Felicity Cobbing – författare

Illustrated in b/w with 15 figures and 180 plates. This volume includes over 150 never previously published photographs of archaeological sites in the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel) taken in 1875 by photographer Tancrede Dumas for the American Palestine Exploration Society. The volume additionally tells the complete history of the American Palestine Exploration Society, which functioned in the 1870s and worked together with the British Palestine Exploration Fund to survey and map archaeological sites in Ottoman Palestine. The interaction of the two societies is examined, and Dumas's photographs are put into a comparative context alongside those of contemporaries such as Bonfils. These photographs preserve the appearance of many of these sites when they were first seen by westerners, before urban development and tourism changed the nature of the regions. Photographs include the ruins of Baalbek, Jerash, parts of Jerusalem, and numerous other sites.

The Holy Land has been an enduring magnet for visitors seeking to retrace the footsteps of biblical prophets, kings and saints and to glimpse the setting of events recorded in the Scriptures. This book offers a selection of over 350 early photographs, paintings, and drawings of the length and breadth of the Holy Land from the rich repository of images in the archives of the Palestine Exploration Fund. As these images were produced before modern development impacted on these landscapes they are an invaluable resource. The pictures are accompanied by 7 maps and plans showing the locations depicted and a commentary describing the biblical context, informed by up-to-date scholarship. The book is divided into five chapters; an introduction which includes a brief account of pilgrimage to the Holy Land through the ages, followed by a series of geographical 'tours' through Galilee, Samaria, and Judea and Philistia, before culminating with a focus on the two main sites of interest for the traveller: Bethlehem and Jerusalem. While often very beautiful in their own right, the pictures also reflect the interest and sensibilities of the photographers and those who collected them, and capture the opposing undercurrents of scientific enquiry and piety characteristic of 19th Century European society. In the case of the photographers engaged by the PEF, a striving for objectivity is strikingly evident in their work.