David Roberts was no archaeologist. But, thanks to his scores of lithographs of the Holy Land, he may have done more to popularize ancient sites in the Near East than anyone else in the 19th century. Roberts was an artist who lived before archaeology became a scholarly endeavor. He was born on October 24, 1796, in Stockbridge, Scotland, near Edinburgh. His father was a poor cobbler who encouraged his son’s talent early on: When David saw circus posters around Stockbridge, he took red chalk and drew lines of animals and circus figures all along the walls of the Roberts […]
