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Archaeologist, Collector and Antiquities Agent: The Activities of Captain Robert Mignan of the Bombay European Regiment during the Early Nineteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 June 2019
Abstract
The ancient site of Babylon has long attracted the interest of European visitors. With the expansion of British geopolitical interests into the Middle East and India during the eighteenth century those in the service of the East India Company were afforded new opportunities to examine and explore regional antiquities. The historiography of archaeological exploration has traditionally focused on the contributions of key Orientalists such as Claudius James Rich and Paul Émile Botta. This has been at the expense of other equally significant individuals who also undertook a range of supporting scholarly, archaeological and museological activities. This article will redress that balance by considering the work of one of these unsung heroes of the East India Company, Captain Robert Mignan.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2019
Footnotes
I am particularly grateful to Dr Jonathan Taylor of the Middle East Department at the British Museum for advising me upon a number of aspects of Babylonian and Mesopotamian archaeology that are discussed within this article.
References
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49 The National Archives, PROB 11/2162/122. Mignan had married Mary, daughter of the London merchant and ship owner, Joshua Jepson Oddy, an active member of the Russia and Levant Companies as well as a writer on political economy. Between them Mignan and his wife went on to have at least six children: The General Weekly Register of News, Literature, Law, Politics and Commerce (1822), p. 251.
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