History of Archaeology
  • Home
  • About
  • Events
  • Projects
  • Discover Archives
  • Historians of Archaeology
  • Notes
  • Different Perspectives Project
  • Home
  • About
  • Events
  • Projects
  • Discover Archives
  • Historians of Archaeology
  • Notes
  • Different Perspectives Project
  History of Archaeology

Dr Lenia Kouneni

14/1/2021

0 Comments

 
Dr Lenia Kouneni is Associate Lecturer in Art History at the University of St Andrews.  She has been researching and publishing on the history of archaeology and the history of collections in the late 18th/early 19th centuries, and the early 20th century, particularly in the latter case excavations at the Great Palace in Istanbul. This excavation was sponsored by David Russell, a Scottish philanthropist and industrialist, via the Walker Trust (for more information, see Lenia's 2018 blog post on artefacts from Jericho now held at the National Museum of Scotland). In addition to this work we discussed the allure of historic photographs and the importance of secretaries to our knowledge of archives and collections.

​
You can listen to our discussion here.
Miss Ilse Bell is the Secretary that Lenia introduces during our conversation. She has provided more details below: 
David Russell's personal secretary was Miss Ilse Bell. She became indispensable to him. She started working for him in 1917 until Russell's death in 1956. She translated articles for him, kept photographs organised and the correspondence too. She was an avid intrepid mountaineer and she spent all her holidays climbing mountains. Apart from the archaeological work of the Great Palace, she was also greatly involved in the Recording Scotland Project of the Pilgrim Trust during WWII.
Lenia has a forthcoming chapter relevant to her discussion: 
 
Kouneni, Lenia (forthcoming 2021) ‘ “By Scottish Munificence”: The Walker Trust Excavations of the Great Palace in Istanbul, 1935–1955.’ In Discovering Byzantium in Istanbul: Scholars, Institutions, and Challenges (1800–1955). Istanbul Research Institute.
 
References/Further Reading:
Barkan, Leonard, 1999. Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture. Yale University Press.
 
Riggs, Christina, 2019. Photographing Tutankhamun: Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, and the Archive. London: Bloomsbury.
 
Stevenson, Alice, 2019. Scattered Finds: Archaeology, Egyptology and Museums. London: UCL Press.
 
Meskell, Lynn (ed.), 1998. Archaeology Under Fire Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. Routledge.
 
Hicks, Dan, 2020. The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution. Pluto Press.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2022
    March 2022
    October 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020

    Categories

    All
    18th Century
    19th Century
    20th Century
    Antiquities Trade
    Archives
    Australia
    Britain
    British Museum
    Collecting
    Colonialism
    Cyprus
    Eastern Mediterranean
    Egypt
    Egyptology
    Emotions
    Human Remains
    Ireland
    Mandate Palestine
    Material Culture
    Museums
    Photography
    Prehistory
    Public Archaeology
    Publishing
    Racism
    Roman Britain
    Scotland
    Travel
    Travel Writing
    Turkey
    War
    Women

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.