Lawrence of Arabia and Leonard Woollley, both archaeologists, in the excavations at Carchemish, Syria, c. 1913. It is not a widely-known fact that T. E. Lawrence, later known as Lawrence of Arabia, started his professional career as an archaeologist. When he was 15, Lawrence and his friend Cyril travelled by bike visiting almost every village's parish church in the two nearest shires, presenting their discoveries to the Ashmolean Museum. At the age of 18, both friends toured France by bicycle, collecting photographs, drawings, and studying medieval castles. Three years later, he set spent three months studying crusader castles in Ottoman Syria, becoming an expert on the Middle Ages at a very short age. In 1910, Lawrence was given a scholarship by the Magdalen College, at Oxford, to work as an archaeologist on a British Museum expedition that would take place in the site of Carchemish. There he learnt Arabic. It was only the start of the legend of Lawrence of Arabia.

From Woollley, C. L. (1920) “Dead Towns and Living Men”. London: Milford