A bullet discovered in the Arabian desert by a team of archaeologists working as part of the Great Arab Revolt Project has appeared to confirm that Lawrence’s account of the revolt in Seven Pillars of Wisdom is largely accurate.
Announcing the finding of the bullet at the site of the 1917 train ambush at Hallat Ammar, project director Dr Neil Faulkner of the University of Bristol told the press today:
“Lawrence has something of a reputation as a teller of tall tales, but this bullet – and the other archaeological evidence we unearthed during ten years of fieldwork – indicates how reliable his account of the Arab Revolt in Seven Pillars of Wisdom is.”
Professor Nicholas Saunders of the University of Bristol added:
“The bullet we found came from a Colt automatic pistol, the type of gun known to be carried by Lawrence and almost certainly not used by any of the ambush’s other participants.”
While several of Lawrence’s biographers have accused him of embellishing his stories, nothing the archaeologists found at any of the sites they excavated supports this view. GARP excavated dozens of sites across the Arabian desert associated with the 1916-1918 Arab Revolt.
Professor Saunders said:
“It is extraordinary that after 100 years new discoveries like this are still being made, casting new light on a guerrilla war which helped reshape the Middle East after 1918 – the consequences of which we are still living with today.”
Dr Neil Faulkner’s book Lawrence of Arabia’s War was published by Yale University Press on April 21.
