Explorers by nature

Hello! You are most welcome to the world of the Bents, the site dedicated to the travels, enquiries, and researches of celebrity explorers J. Theodore (30 March 1852–5 May 1897) and Mabel (28 January 1847-3 July 1929) Bent, undertaken during the last decades of the reign of Queen Victoria. It is hoped that the site will develop into a useful resource for the sharing of information on these great British travellers, who still remain relatively unknown beyond the confines of scholarly bibliographies and the daypacks of Cycladic-island-hoppers.

 

Recent News

• March 2025: Recent articles with significant references to the discoveries of the Bents.
• 28 February 1885-2025: We mark the 140th anniversary of the appearance of Bent’s much-loved account of travels in the Greek Cyclades.
• 2025 sees 25 years of Bent researches at the Bent Archive. See our ‘want list‘!

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  November 2024: With respect and sadness, the Bent Archive must note the passing (24 Nov. 2024) of the great specialist of Cycladic archaeology, and so much more, Colin Renfrew. Countless of his relevant publications over the decades make mention of Bent’s early contributions to the study of the region (e.g. Researches among the Cyclades [1884]; The Cyclades [1885]; etc.), Theodore even making it into Renfrew and Bahn’s seminal Archaeology: Theories Methods And Practice (Thames & Hudson, 1991, p. 466). Lord Renfrew, ‘καλό ταξίδι’.

• October 2024: For a recent article on new botanical and zoological species discovered by the Bents, click here.
• September 2024: Research is currently on-going into the archives of John Murray, and William Blackwood & Son relating to correspondence between Theodore Bent and these two major publishing companies. The material is held in the National Library of Scotland.
• August 2024: Research is to start shortly into Theodore Bent’s correspondence (contracts, etc.) with London publishers Longmans and Co, who produced five of Bent’s monographs in the 1880s and ’90s. The archives of The Longman Group (GB 6 RUL MS 1393) are kept at Reading University, Special Collections, UK, and it is believed that this project will be the first detailed study of Bent’s relationship with this leading publishing firm, shedding light on the dissemination of ‘popular archaeology/anthropology’ at the turn of the 19th Century.
• July 2024: Enjoy reading out loud? Like to record your favourite chapter from Bent’s classic The Cyclades, or Life Among the Insular Greeks (1885)? We would love to chat about hosting it here (hoping to have a complete audio version eventually to offer Greek-island fans; it’s about time!). Make contact: info@thebentarchive.com

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  June 2024: Friends of the Bent Archive make purchase of a relief medallion of Mabel Bent, sculpted in 1895 by the highly regarded modeller Thomas Stirling Lee (1857-1916).

• We are delighted to add (January 2024) that the skeletal material recovered by the Bents from Antiparos in the winter of 1883/4 and now in the Natural History Museum, London, has recently been assessed by Laura Ortiz Guerrero in “Osteological analysis of the Early Bronze Age human remains excavated from Antiparos in the 19th century” (Unpublished Master’s Dissertation, University of Sheffield, Department of Archaeology, 2023).

Coming soon! 

An update on the ‘Bethel Stamp Seal’. Nothing seems to have been added to the mystery of the clay stamp found at Bethel/Beitin in the late 1950s since 2014.  Could this seal be the one Theodore and Mabel brought back to London from Wadi Dawan (Hadramaut) in 1884?

A new series of articles on those who have followed in the footsteps of the Bents, including Gertrude Caton Thompson, Lawrence Durrell,  Vincent C. Scott O’Connor, Robert Liddell, Ernle Bradford, John Freely, Jennifer Barclay…

Now available  – the digitisation of Mabel’s ‘Chronicles’, in the words of the Curator of the project for the Hellenic Society, London (Sept 2021):- “The digitisation project encompasses several collections here at the library; most notably … the Bent Collection … which contains the travel diaries of Mabel and Theodore Bent, who travelled in Greece and the Middle East in the late 19th century.”

Mabel Bent’s original diary manuscripts can now be accessed by all who want to accompany this couple around remoter parts of the Levant, Africa, and Arabia through a late-19th century lens.

THE BENTS AT LARGE IN THE LEVANT, AFRICA AND ARABIA: 1877-1897

The main objective of our journey in these pages is to broaden awareness of the nature and extent of the travels and activities of this British couple at the end of the 19th century, and to provide a forum for anyone (enthusiast to academic) interested in the Bents’ researches into matters archaeological and ethnographical, amongst many others, as well as their ineradicable need to be somewhere else!

You will see that our site explores the couple’s main spheres of research interests (see ‘Explorations’): Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean (1880s), parts of Africa (early 1890s), and Southern Arabia (until Theodore’s death in May 1897).

Beyond these horizons, a major component of the site is the section devoted to the travel diaries kept by Mabel over the nearly twenty years of the couple’s journeys together (see ‘Mabel’s Chronicles‘). These first-hand accounts of their activities at unexplored archaeological sites from ‘Abyssapolis’ (1895) to (Great) Zimbabwe (1891) are of unique interest.

Other features of this site include:

• An extensive range of articles (feel free to comment or contribute).
• Outline and biographical information.
• A reference and bibliography section.
• A ‘discovery’ page for news and events.
• Related links and offers.
•         A full ‘search’ facility, i.e. ‘costumes’, ‘music’, ‘dance’, places, etc, etc,

We very much hope you will enjoy and find much of interest as you travel these pages in the company of our indefatigable Victorian travellers – Theodore & Mabel Bent – and that you will want to share this site among friends, family, and colleagues.

Καλό ταξίδι