Some of the biggest showstoppers of the exhibit "A Gift from the Desert" were included by chance: a silver mess kit, desert robes and a beautiful, gold, bejeweled dagger that belonged to T. E. Lawrence, the British army officer known for his role in the Arab Revolt and immortalized by Peter O’Toole in the 1962 movie “Lawrence of Arabia.”
Bill Cooke, director of Kentucky Horse Park’s International Museum of the Horse, was at All Souls College in Oxford University, finalizing the loan of a small terracotta figure of a bearded Hittite rider and horse.
The All Souls bursar told Cooke “’We have something else you might be interested in.’
“He led me down a long corridor into the library, which looked exactly like a library at Oxford should look. And there on the table were the silver mess kit, desert robes and a beautiful, gold, bejeweled dagger. It turns out T. E. Lawrence was a fellow at All Souls, and after he died, his mother gave his things to the college.”
The artifacts complete a perfect circle, Cooke learned. “Before he was in the military, Lawrence was an archaeologist. He worked with C. Leonard Woolley, who excavated the royal tombs in Ur, and Lawrence helped find the little horse and rider.”
Lawrence of Arabia Part of the Arabian Horse Story from 2600 BCE to the Present
T.E. Lawrence’s pieces will join more than 400 others from Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan and Turkey, as well as Europe.
The Arabian is considered the oldest known breed of riding horse, arising in the Middle East in ancient times. Arabians lived among the Bedouins, nomadic desert tribes, who used them for battle and strictly controlled their blood lines. Bedouins domesticated the camel about 3500 BCE, according to the Arabian Horse Association, and possibly the horse shortly after that.
Today, there are more living Arabian horses in the United States, according to the Arabian Horse Association, than in all the other countries in the world combined.
Lexington Showcases Some of the Greatest Archaeological Finds in History
Many of the pieces, however, go back far beyond American history. Here are some of the treasures in “A Gift from the Desert”:
- The 4,500 year-old Standard of Ur, one of the most famous artifacts in antiquity, was found in a burial chamber in the Sumerian Royal Cemetery in Iraq.
“It was discovered beside a body with a pole in his hand, and archaeologists thought it was a battle standard,” Cooke said of the trapezoidal wooden shape covered with mosaic scenes of soldiers, horses and chariots.
“Most people now feel it was a sound box for a stringed instrument, like a lyre.”
- Sasanian silver bowl, c 500 BCE, from Iran, with the scene of a royal lion hunt. On loan from the British Museum, “the bowl is one of the most valuable pieces in the exhibition,” Cooke said.
- Ivory handle, c 1370 BCE, from Egypt. “This is one of my favorite pieces,” Cooke said of the horse, his stride hyper-extended. “He looks so much like an Arab horse, with the dish face, large nostrils and high-set tail.
- Ur Tablet, c 2100 BCE, from Sumeria. “We’re 99% sure that this is the earliest depiction of a human riding a horse,” Cooke said of the tiny tablet, about an inch and a half square. “It may be the first time it’s ever been exhibited. A professor at Cornell owns it, and is thrilled to have it shown.”
- Original paintings from European Orientalist artists such as Eugene Delecroix, Adolf Schreyer, Eugene Fromentin and Vincenzo Marinelli. “These are essential in our story,” Cooke said. “In the 17th and 18th century, the Ottomans were moving up through the Baltics, and as they invaded they brought their light horses with them.
“There were also advances in firearms, and the Turks could shoot right through the heavy armor of the Europeans. ‘Why do we need these big, ponderous horses?’ they asked. There was a real shift from heavy to light cavalry, and Europeans needed lighter, more agile horses to breed with theirs.”
- Kikkuli Tablet, c 14th century BCE, a clay tablet with cuneiform script, on loan from a Berlin museum. “There is only one other in the world, and it’s in Istanbul,” Cooke said. “This is the oldest known treatise on horse training and horse care, and it’s very similar to what’s used for three-day event horses now. History does repeat itself.”
How to See Lawrence of Arabia’s Gear and the Arabian Horse Exhibit
“A Gift from the Desert: the Art, History and Culture of the Arabian Horse” runs through Oct. 15 at the Kentucky Horse Park’s International Museum of the Horse, a Smithsonian Affiliate in Lexington, Ky.
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Betsa Marsh - Betsa Marsh's passion is the UK, but she'll go anywhere for a good story. Her piece on the San Antonio Toilet Seat Museum won the Lowell ...
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