A Tour of Edward Daniel Clarke and Peter Simon Pallas to the South-Western Crimea in September 1800

Abstract

This work analyses a very specific source on the Crimean history at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: British traveller Edward Daniel Clarke’s account of his journey to the south-western extremity of the Peninsula to study archaeological sites dating to different historical periods. This episode was described in a chapter of Clarke’s “Travels,” which became extraordinary popular and to a great extent shaped the notion of the Crimea in the public mind of the West. Clarke contributed much to the development of some stereotypes of the Crimea and Russia that continued to these days, particularly accusing the Russian in voluntary and senseless destruction of archaeological monuments. In the said journey, Clarke found a companion and a guide in person of famous natural scientist Peter Simon Pallas. They spent a few days to examine the sites located atop of Mangup mountain, in the Gerakleiskii peninsula, Aia promontory and its environs, as well as the valley around the settlement of Chorgun (now Chernorech’e). Later on, when working on his book of travels, Clarke considerably overworked the materials kept in his travel journal, particularly, supplying an analysis of ancient and mediaeval sources and citing the latter in footnotes. Clarke’s travelogue documented the condition of several archaeological sites, which later suffered of natural and human factors. The document under study uncovers the ways in which the researchers in the period in question analysed what was seen and, therefore, allows the one to reconstruct the first stage of the scientific research of the region. Apart from archaeological aspects, Clarke described some contemporary realities, such as the mining of fuller’s earth, epidemies in the Crimea, Tatar nobility’s dress, Russian recruits, and some specific local plants. The Russian translation of the chapter of Clarke’s travelogue has been published for the first time.