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Befriending Byron and Poaching Antiquities: John Lee in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1810–1815
Who spends five years travelling in the Mediterranean and Middle East, hangs out with Byron in Athens, and gets in trouble for poaching Greco-Roman antiquities? A Cambridge maths graduate called John Lee, that’s who. This post looks at some key moments in Lee’s five-year tour of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East in 1810–1815. He…
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John Lee: Traveller, Egyptologist, Astronomer
John Lee is not well remembered today, but in his lifetime he was known across Britain and Ireland, South Africa, North America, and north Africa. Lee’s home, Hartwell, was celebrated for its observatory and for his private collection of ancient artefacts. How did a merchant’s son rise to such celebrity in scientific and antiquarian circles?…