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- Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
- Also known as
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Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
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primary name: Kitchener, Horatio Herbert
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other name: (Earl) Kitchener of Khartoum
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other name: (Viscount) Kitchener of Khartoum
- Details
- individual; military/naval; archaeologist; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1850-1916
- Biography
- Lord Kitchener is best known for his military career but he was also involved in archaeological work throughout much of his life - in Palestine, Cyprus and Egypt - and also collected antiquities and Chinese porcelain.
Throughout much of his career, Kitchener was closely involved in archaeological work in Palestine, Cyprus and Egypt. In 1874, Kitchener was sent to replace Charles Tyrwhitt-Drake on the Survey of Western Palestine, which he completed, and later co-authored with fellow Royal Engineer Claude Conder the three volumes of the final publication dealing with the survey itself (which included archaeology as well as biblical and classical toponymy) and contributed to others (Silberman 1982, chapter 12; see ).
When he was appointed to carry out a survey of Cyprus by the new British administration of the island (Shirley 2001), he offered to excavate archaeological sites on behalf of the British Museum if funding could be provided (Kiely 2010). Newton was unable to provide any money, and the work was eventually sponsored by the South Kensington Musuem (q.v.) (Bailey 1965, 5-13). Kitchener organised excavations at Salamis, Gastria and Kourion though the work was carried out by Gordon Hake (q.v.) whose manuscript account is the main source of information on the excavations, as Kitchener did not publish his discoveries. The museums in Edinburgh and Dublin also received a share of the finds, and it is possible that other museums in the UK were given material around the same time. Most of the material that remained in the V&A was transferred to the British Musuem in the early 1980s. Kitchener was also instrumental in establishing the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia in 1882 and was its first honorary curator (Stanley Price 2001).
Kitchener was later involved in survey projects in activities in the Sinai Peninsula and in the Negev from 1882 onwards (http://www.pef.org.uk/profiles/lt-horatio-h-kitchener-re-1850-1916).
- Bibliography
- Bailey D. 1965, 'Lamps in the Victoria and Albert Museum' Opuscula Atheniensia VI (1965), 1-13 [main source of informaiton on the Hake-Kitchener excavations in Cyprus].
Goring E. 1988, A mischievous pastime. Digging in Cyprus in the Nineteenth Century (Edinburgh, pp. 20-21.