Laurence Waddell

British Army officers in Tibet during 1904, Laurence Waddell (center)

Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell,[1] CB, CIE, F.L.S., L.L.D, M.Ch., I.M.S. RAI, F.R.A.S (1854–1938) was a British explorer, Professor of Tibetan, Professor of Chemistry and Pathology, British army surgeon,[2] collector in Tibet, and amateur archaeologist. Waddell also studied Sumerian and Sanskrit; he made various translations of seals and other inscriptions. His reputation as a Assyriologist gained little to no academic recognition and his books on the history of civilization have caused controversy. Some of his book publications however were popular with the public, and he is regarded by some today to have been a real-life precursor of the fictitious character Indiana Jones.[3]

Life

A Chinese Horse-Dragon, Reproduced in Waddell's, "The Buddhism of Tibet: Or Lamaism, with Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology ...", 1895. Unknown Chinese artist.
A Tibetan Lung-Horse, Reproduced in Waddell's, "The Buddhism of Tibet: Or Lamaism, with Its Mystic Cults, Symbolism and Mythology ...", 1895. Unknown Tibetan artist.
A photo of Paljor Dorje Shatra, Reproduced in Waddell's "Lhasa and Its Mysteries-With a Record of the British Tibetan Expedition of 1903-1904", 1905.)

Laurence Waddell was born on 29 May 1854, and was the son of Rev. Thomas Clement Waddell, a Doctor of Divinity at Glasgow University and Jean Chapman, daughter of John Chapman of Banton, Stirlingshire.[4] Laurence Waddell obtained a Bachelor's degree in Medicine followed by a Master's degree in both Surgery and Chemistry at Glasgow University in 1878. His first job was as a resident surgeon near the university and was also the President of Glasgow University's Medical Society.[5] In 1880 Waddell joined the British Army and served as a medical officer for the Indian Medical Service (I.M.S), subsequently he was stationed in India and the Far East (Tibet, China and Burma). The following year he became a Professor of Chemistry and Pathology at the Medical College of Kolkata, India. While working in India, Waddell also studied Sanskrit and edited the Indian Medical Gazette. He became Assistant Sanitary Commissioner under the government of India.[6]

After Waddell worked as a Professor of Chemistry and Pathology for 6 years, he became involved in military expeditions across Burma and Tibet.[7] Between 1885-1887 Waddell took part in the British expedition that annexed Upper Burma, which defeated Thibaw Min the last king of the Konbaung dynasty.[8] After his return from Burma Waddell was stationed in Darjeeling district, India, and was appointed Principal Medical Officer in 1888. In the 1890s Waddell, while in Patna, established that Agam Kuan was part of Ashoka's Hell.[9] His first publications were essays and articles on medicine and zoology, most notably "The Birds of Sikkim" (1893).[10] In 1895 he obtained a doctorate in law.[11]

Waddell traveled extensively in India throughout the 1890s (including Sikkim and areas on the borders of Nepal and Tibet) and wrote about the Tibetan Buddhist religious practices he observed there. Stationed with the British army in Darjeeling, Waddell learned the Tibetan language and even visited Tibet several times secretly, in disguise. He was the cultural consultant on the 1903-1904 British invasion of Tibet led by Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, and was considered alongside Sir Charles Bell as one of the foremost authorities on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. Waddell studied archaeology and ethnology in-between his military assignments across India and Tibet, and his exploits in the Himalayas were published in his highly successful book Among the Himalayas (1899). Various archaeological excavations were also carried out and supervised by Waddell across India, including Pataliputra, of which he did not receive recognition of discovery until long after his death, in 1982, by the government of Bengal. His discoveries at Pataliputra were published in an official report in 1892.[12]

During the 1890s Waddell specialised in Buddhist antiquities and became a collector, between 1895-97 he published "Reports on collections of Indo-Scythian Buddhist Sculptures from the Swat Valley", in 1893 he also read a paper to the International Congress of Orientalists: "On some newly found Indo-Grecian Buddhistic Sculptures from the Swat Valley".[13] In 1895 Waddell published his book Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism, which was one of the first works published in the west on Buddhism. As a collector, Waddell had come across many Tibetan manuscripts and maps, but was disappointed to not find a single reference to a lost ancient civilization, which he had hoped to discover.

Waddell continued his military service with the Indian Medical Service. He was in China during the Boxer Rebellion (1898-1901), including the Relief of Peking in August 1900, for which he was mentioned in despatches, received the China War Medal (1900) with clasp, and was in 1901 appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE).[14] By late 1901 he had moved to North-West Frontier Province and was present during the Mahsud-Waziri Blockade, 1901–02. He was in Malakand in 1902 and took part in the PMO Tibet Mission to Lhasa 1903–04, for which he was again mentioned in despatches, received a medal with clasp and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). Waddell then returned to England where he briefly became Professor of Tibetan at the University College of London (1906–1908).

In 1908, Waddell began to learn Sumerian.[15] Thus in his later career he turned to studying the ancient near east, especially Sumeria and dedicated his time to deciphering or translating ancient cuneiform tablets or seals, most notably including the Scheil dynastic tablet. In 1911, Waddell published two entries in the Encyclopædia Britannica.[16] By 1917, Waddell was fully retired and first started exclusively writing on Aryans, beginning in an article published in the Asiatic Review entitled "Aryan Origin of the World's Civilization".[17] From the 1920s Waddell published several works which attempted to prove an Aryan (i.e., Indo-European) origin of the alphabet and the appearance of Indo-European myth figures in ancient Near Eastern mythologies (e.g., Hittite, Sumerian, Babylonian). The foundation of his argument is what he saw as a persistence of cult practices, religious symbols, mythological stories and figures, and god and hero names throughout Western and Near Eastern civilizations, but also based his arguments on his deciphered Sumerian and Indus-Valley seals, and other archaeological findings.

Waddell died in 1938. That same year, he had completed writing Trojan Origin of World Civilization. The book was never published.[18]

He is commemorated in the Giant babax (Babax waddelli). The University of Glasgow holds Waddell's papers and manuscript collection.

Waddell's Theories

Waddell's voluminious writings after his retirement were based on an attempt to prove the Sumerians (who he identified as Aryans) as the progenitors of other ancient civilizations, such as the Indus Valley Civilization and ancient Egyptians to "the classic Greeks and Romans and Ancient Britons, to whom they [the Sumerians] passed on from hand to hand down the ages the torch of civilization".[19] He is perhaps most remembered for his controversial translations; the Scheil dynastic tablet, the Bowl of Utu and Newton Stone, as well as his British Edda.

Phoenicians

See also: Newton Stone

Waddell in Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons (1924) argued for a Syro-Hittite and Phoenician colonization of the British Isles, turning to British folklore that mentions Trojans, such as the "Brutus Stone" in Totnes and Geoffrey of Monmouth; place-names that supposedly preserve the Hittite language, and inscriptions, as evidence.

According to Waddell the "unknown" script on the Newton Stone is Hitto-Phoenician. His translation is as follows:

"This Sun-Cross (Swastika) was raised to Bil (or Bel, the God of Sun-Fire) by the Kassi (or Cassi-bel[-an]) of Kast of the Siluyr (sub-clan) of the "Khilani" (or Hittite-palace-dwellers), the Phoenician (named) Ikar of Cilicia, the Prwt (or Prat, that is 'Barat' or 'Brihat' or Brit-on)."

Brutus of Troy, Waddell also regarded to be a real historical figure. In a chapter entitled "COMING OF THE "BRITONS" OR ARYAN BRITO-PHOENICIANS UNDER KING BRUTUS-THE-TROJAN TO ALBION ABOUT 1103, B.C", Waddell writes:

"This migration of King Brutus and his Trojan and Phoenician refugees from Asia Minor and Phoenicia to establish a new homeland colony in Albion, which event the British Chronicle historical tradition places at 1103 B.C. was probably associated with, and enforced by, not merely the loss of Troy, but also by the massacring invasion of Hittite Asia Minor, Cilicia and the Syria-Phoenician coast of the Mediterranean by the Assyrian King Tiglath Pileser I. about 1107 B.C. to 1105 B.C."

Reception

Waddell's contemporaries reviewed the book very negatively. One reviewer considered the content to be "admirable fooling", but that he had "an uneasy feeling that the author really believes it".[20] It has also been pointed out that Waddell took the Historia Regum Britanniae to be literal history which is why he was almost asking to be ridiculed by historians:

"Contrary to the general opinion of historians, he [Waddell] accepts as authentic the chronicle of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and regards as historical the legend of King Brut of Troy having reached Britain with his followers about the year 1103 BC, founded London a few years later, and spread through the land Phoenician culture, religion and art [...] His views indeed are so unorthodox that he is no doubt prepared for strong criticism, and even ridicule. King Brut of Troy has long been relegated to the company of old wives' tales."[21]

Indus-Valley seals

See also: Indus script

The first Indus Valley or Harappan seal was published by Alexander Cunningham in 1872.[22] It was half a century later, in 1912, when more Indus Valley seals were discovered by J. Fleet, prompting an excavation campaign under Sir John Hubert Marshall in 1921–22, resulting in the discovery of the ancient civilization at Harappa (later including Mohenjo-daro). As seals were discovered from the Indus Valley, Waddell in 1925 first attempted to decipher them and claimed they were of Sumerian origin in his Indo-Sumerian Seals Deciphered.

Reception

In the 1920s, Waddell's theory that the Indus-Valley seals were Sumerian had some academic support, despite criticisms; Ralph Turner considered Waddell's work to be "fantasy".[23][24][25][26] Two notable supporters of Waddell included John Marshall the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India until 1928, and Stephen Herbert Langdon.[27] Marshall had led the main excavation campaign at Harappa and published his support for Waddell's Sumerian decipherment in 1931. Preston however in a section of her biography of Waddell entitled "Opposition to Indo-Sumerian Seals Deciphered" points out that support for Waddell's theory had disappeared by the early 1940s through the work of Mortimer Wheeler:

"However, a shift, which made his [Waddell's] claim appear untenable, occurred in the consensus in archaeology after Sir Mortimer Wheeler was put in charge of the Archaeological Survey of India [...] Wheeler's interpretation of the archaeological data was the guideline for scholars who appear to have ruled out the possibility that the language of the seals could be akin to Sumerian and Proto-Elamite."[28]

Sumerian language

The non-Semitic source of the Sumerian language was established in the late 19th century by Julius Oppert and Henry Rawlinson from which many different theories were proposed as to its origin. In his works Aryan Origin of the Alphabet and Sumer-Aryan Dictionary (1927) Waddell attempted to show the Sumerian language was of Aryan (Indo-European) root.

Reception

Waddell's Sumerian-Aryan equation did not receive any support at the time, despite having sent personal copies of his two books to Archibald Sayce.[29] Professor Langdon, who had earlier offered Waddell his support for a Sumerian or Proto-Elamite decipherment of the Indus-Valley seals, dismissed Waddell's publications on the Sumerian language itself:

"The author [Waddell] has slight knowledge of Sumerian, and commits unpardonable mistakes [...] The meanings assigned to Sumerian roots are almost entirely erroneous. One can only regret the publication of such fantastic theories, which cannot possibly do service to serious science in any sense whatsoever."[30]

Chronology

Waddell in The Makers of Civilization (1929) and Egyptian Civilization Its Sumerian Origin and Real Chronology (1930) revised conventional dates for most ancient civilizations and king lists. For example he believed the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt began c. 2700 BC, not c. 3100 BC, arguing that Menes, was Manis-Tusu, the son of Sargon, who in turn was King Minos of Crete. For Waddell, the earliest ancient rulers or mythological kings of Sumer, Egypt, Crete and the Indus Valley civilizations were all identical Aryan personages.

Reception

To support his revised chronology, Waddell acquired and translated several artefacts including the Scheil dynastic tablet and the Bowl of Utu. Waddell was praised for his acquisition of the latter.[31] However Waddell's translations were always highly unorthodox and not taken serious. The Makers of Civilization was panned in a review by Harry L. Shapiro:

"The reader does not need to peruse this work very far to become aware of its distinct bias and unscientific method. Fortunately the 'Nordic race-mongers' have become discredited that there is little to fear from the effect of this opus on the intelligent lay public. Succinctly, Mr. Waddell believes that the beginning of all civilization dates from the Nordic [Aryan] Sumerians who were blond Nordics with blue eyes."[32]

Waddell during his own life, was deemed to be anachronistic by most scholars because of his supremacist views regarding the Aryan race:

"One of the reasons for the literary oblivion of Waddell's works on the history of civilization with an Aryan theme is [...] in relation to the fact that he did not give up the quest for the Aryans in terms of racial origins when it was abandoned in the 1870s, and it was very influential in his choice of career [...] His comparative studies and decipherment led him to a completely controversial and alternative perspective of ancient history. Furthermore, the titles that are now little known may have been sidelined due his use of the term 'Aryan' as it became associated with the rise of Nazism."[33]

Pan-Sumerism

Waddell from 1917 (having first published the article "Aryan Origin of the World's Civilization") until his death was a proponent of hyperdiffusionism ("Pan-Sumerism") arguing that many cultures and ancient civilizations were the product of Aryan Sumerian colonists such as the Indus Valley Civilization, Minoan Crete, Phoenicia, and Dynastic Egypt.

Grafton Elliot Smith who pioneered hyperdiffusionism (but of the Egyptians) was an influential correspondent to Waddell.[34]

Reception

R. Sawyer (1985) points out that Waddell "was of the eccentric opinion that Western, Indian and ancient Egyptian culture derived from a common Sumerian ancestry" and that his ideas were far-fetched to untenable.[35] Gabriel Moshenska of the UCL Institute of Archaeology has noted:

"Waddell's hopes of rewriting the story of civilization with the Aryan race as the first and only protagonist rapidly faded as his works and ideas remained restricted to, if well rooted in, the ultra right wing fringes of society and scholarship. J. H. Harvey, member of the pro-Nazi Imperial Fascist League and later a respected medievalist, wrote a short book The Heritage of Britain (1940) which aimed to summarise Waddell's works for a narrower audience on the fringes of the British Fascist movement (Macklin 2008). The British-Israelite W. T. F. Jarrold used Waddell's study of the Newton Stone to support a Biblical origin for the Anglo-Saxon race (1927). Today Waddell's works are read and referenced most commonly by white supremacists, esoteric scholars and conspiracy theorists such as David Icke (1999)."[36]

Published books

(for book descriptions see footnotes)

Sources

See also

References & Footnotes

  1. ↑ Most sources have "Laurence Austine", such as: At least one source has "Laurence Augustine":
    • Laurence Augustine Waddell at the Manuscripts Catalogue, University of Glasgow —According to this catalogue, L. A. Waddell was born with the name "Laurence Augustine Waddell" and at some unknown later time began using "Austine" as his middle name. His books have the name "L. Austine Waddell" and Indian sources often refer to him as "Lawrence Austine Waddell."
  2. ↑ "WADDELL, Lieut.-Col. Laurence Austine". Who's Who, 59: p. 1811. 1907.
  3. ↑ Preston, Christine (2009). The Rise of Man in the Gardens of Sumeria: A Biography of L.A. Waddell. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-84519-315-7. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
  4. ↑ Thomas, 1939.
  5. ↑ Preston, 2009: 25.
  6. ↑ Thomas, 1939.
  7. ↑ Preston, 2009: 30.
  8. ↑ Preston, 2009: 31.
  9. ↑ "Agam Kuan". Directorate of Archaeology, Govt. of Bihar, official website. Retrieved April 19, 2013. Waddell on his exploration of the ruins of Pataliputra during 1890s identified Agam Kuan with the legendary hell built by Ashoka for torturing people as cited by the Chinese travellers of the 5th and 7th centuries A.D.
  10. ↑ Preston, 2009: 36.
  11. ↑ Waddell Archive
  12. ↑ Thomas, 1939.
  13. ↑ Thomas, 1939.
  14. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 27337. p. 4917. 24 July 1901.
  15. ↑ Preston, 2009: 20.
  16. ↑ “Lhasa” in Encyclopædia Britannica, (11th ed.), 1911. “Tibet” in Encyclopædia Britannica, (11th ed.), 1911.
  17. ↑ Thomas, 1939.
  18. ↑ Preston, 2009: 194.
  19. ↑ Waddell, L. (1929). Makers of Civilization in Race & History. London: Luzac. p. 497.
  20. ↑ Turner, R. L. (1925). "The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons" [Review]. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London. 3(4): 808-810.
  21. ↑ Crownhart-Vaughan, E. A. P. (1925). "The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons" [Review]. The Geographical Journal. 65(5):446-447.
  22. ↑ Cunningham, A., 1875. Archaeological Survey of India, Report for the Year 1872-73, 5: 105-8 and pl. 32-3. Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India
  23. ↑ Turner, R. L. (1926). "Indo-Sumerian Seals Deciphered by L. A. Waddell" [Review]. Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London,. 4(2): 376.
  24. ↑ Charpentier, J. (1925). "The Indo-Sumerian Seals Deciphered by L. A. Waddell" [Review]. JRAS. 4: 797-799.
  25. ↑ Barton, George A. (1926). "On the So-Called Sumero-Indian Seals". The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 8: 79-95.
  26. ↑ Brown, G. (1927). "The Indo-Sumerian Seals Deciphered by L. A. Waddell" [Review]. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 47: 284-285.
  27. ↑ Preston, 2009: 169.
  28. ↑ Preston, 2009: 21.
  29. ↑ Preston, 2009: 85.
  30. ↑ Langdon, S. (1927). The Aryan Origin of the Alphabet; A Sumer-Aryan Dictionary by L. A. Waddell" [Review]. The Scottish Historical Review. 25(97): 53.
  31. ↑ Preston, 2009: 143.
  32. ↑ Shapiro, H. L. (1930). "The Makers of Civilization in Race and History". Pacific Affairs. 3(12): 1168-1169.
  33. ↑ Preston, 2009: 195.
  34. ↑ Preston, 2009: 5, footnotes; "Waddell's thesis mirrored contemporary Grafton Elliot Smith's better-known theory of Egypt".
  35. ↑ Sawyer, R. (1985). "To Know the Histories: L. A. Waddell's Sumer and Akkad". Paideuma. 14(1): 79-94.
  36. ↑ The Later Works of Lieutenant-Colonel Professor Laurence Austine Waddell
  37. ↑ Waddell's best-known work, and was one of the first books published in the west to offer such extensive observations of Buddhism, ranging from metaphysics to practical magic. Waddell explains the whole Tibetan pantheon, including transcriptions of hundreds of charms and mantras and detailed coverage of the doctrine of incarnation and reincarnation.
  38. ↑ An engaging journal of fourteen years of travel. In Waddell's own words, "During the past fourteen years I have traversed portions of the borderlands of Sikkim nearly every year, sketching, shooting, collecting, and especially exploring the customs of the people on the frontiers of Tibet, and of Nepal. This illustrated narrative of my journeyings I hope may reflect, in some measure, the keen enjoyment of travel in these regions, may awaken further interest in a fascinating though little known land, may assist in guiding the traveler to those features that are of greatest general interest, and bring home to the reader a whiff of the bracing breezes of the Himalayas."
  39. ↑ Documents the people and religion of the Tibetan capital, including British-Tibetan military clashes and peace negotiations.
  40. ↑ Waddell reconstructs the Old Icelandic Poetic Edda under the notion that the text is very ancient and actually "British." His pursuit is apparent the subtitle: "The great epic poem of the ancient Britons of the exploits of King Thor, Arthur, or Adam and his knights in establishing civilization reforming Eden & capturing the Holy Grail about 3380-3350 B.C." For this he uses the language and art of Indo-European and Semitic peoples, and draws lines through mythologies connecting ancient gods and stories to those in the medieval manuscripts of the Edda.

External links