Lawrence of Arabia he was not only a hero of the British Empire; he, too, was one of those historical figures complex enough to fascinate the art world, and if not, ask David Lean and Peter O'Toole. But what many people do not know is that Thomas Edward Lawrence, before becoming a champion of the freedom of the Arab peoples against the Turks, was a simple archaeologist . Of course, one who knew very well that region known as Fertile Crescent (which includes Egypt, Syria, Assyria and Mesopotamia, yes) and that is why the British high command recruited him when the First World War broke out. .
In 1876, the Assyriologist George Smith discovered on the small Ottoman hill of Tel the city of Karkemish or Carquemís , the same one that appears in The Bible under the name of Jerablus (Europus for the Romans) and the place where the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Assyrians around 605 BC. Smith died in Aleppo shortly after, but the Ottoman sultan in whose territory the city was located authorized the start of excavations in two campaigns. The second began in 1911 and had among its members a young archaeologist:Lawrence.
The problem that arose was twofold. On the one hand, Carquemís was located right on theborder , right where both the Berlin-Baghdad railway and the Sykes-Picot line passed, drawn by the Western powers to determine the contours of the Middle East. The other sticky issue was the international context , with a conflict of global dimensions about to explode.
And he did it, interrupting the professional career of Lawrence - who had already settled there and learned the Arabic language, seduced by that culture - to channel it towards war. In 1920, once the conflict was over, Carquemís was divided into two halves , each of them in a different country:Turkey and Syria , in both cases under the suspicious military surveillance typical of border posts. An uncomfortable situation that is currently reaching its most serious moments due to the civil war in the second country.
This has not been enough to dissuade an archaeological expedition which, in charge of the universities of Istanbul, Gaziantep and Bologna, since 2011 has returned to excavate the ruins overcoming the fear of hearing the shooting less than two kilometers away, on the other side of the fence. And it is that Jarablus, as the Syrian part is called, was taken by the rebels, bombed by Assad's air force and, finally, conquered by the IS fanatics. .
Despite everything, in a show of courage and recklessness, the Turkish government has decided toopen Carchemís to visitors , within the framework of a promotional tourist campaign of the city of Gazantiep , which is experiencing a moment of economic boom due to its pistachio harvests and the abundance of people who have settled there fleeing from more dangerous places. However, a four-meter-high wall is going to be built along that part of the border, to increase security which is already run by the same army that has garrisoned Tel Hill since 1920.
Something that, by the way, has allowed the good conservation of the archaeological remains, by keeping out the usual thieves and the masses of tourists, as the scientists themselves admit. Thanks to this, hundreds of statues, inscriptions and stone reliefs from various eras have been found, many of them safe in the British Museum of London and others at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations from Ankara. Even Lawrence's own house is being excavated, under which there are also important remains (and some letter with his signature).
Unfortunately, there is a downside:that of the Syrian side, where a team led by Professor Tony Wilkinson of Durham University last excavated in 2009-10. At this time, it seems unlikely that he will be able to return to work .