#Pagan deity the lost city tomb raider movie
#Pagan deity the lost city tomb raider driver
#Pagan deity the lost city tomb raider series

The collectionвЂ™s scholarly significance has only increased in recent years, as excavation work in Yemen is at a standstill due to the countryвЂ™s civil war and intensifying humanitarian crisis.ДЄll of which makes it fascinating that this extremely memorable, manically accomplished man, who was born almost penniless but was rumored to be one of the wealthiest Americans when he died in 1975, has by now been all but forgotten. Hollywood flourishes aside, Phillips also delivered the goods, gathering over several field seasons whatвЂ™s still considered to be one of the finest and most coherent collections of ancient Yemeni artifacts outside of South Arabia, housed partially in the Smithsonian.

#Pagan deity the lost city tomb raider movie

Indeed, he brought his own movie cameras into the desert, took countless publicity pictures, held international press conferences and telegrammed President Truman, all in between visits to his mom.

He talked of discovering buried treasure and pledged to find traces of the Queen of Sheba.

#Pagan deity the lost city tomb raider driver

He staffed his expeditions with beautiful women, including a truck driver with вЂњthe figure of a mannequinвЂќ and a 19-year-old secretary so attractive that he feared she would be annexed into a local harem. He once described being served a dish of eyeballs in a sultanвЂ™s palace while getting fanned by palm fronds. Rumors have even circulated that Phillips could have provided an inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones. This article is a selection from the March issue of Smithsonian magazine Buy Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine now for just $12 But sand, drought and native bullets had kept most of them away.вЂќ YemenвЂ™s deserts, Phillips wrote, вЂњbeckoned scholars and scientists for generations. Upon his return to America, Phillips was named one of the Top Ten Young Men of 1954, alongside Chuck Yeager and Robert Kennedy, and Lowell Thomas heralded him as вЂњAmericaвЂ™s Lawrence of Arabia.вЂќ

#Pagan deity the lost city tomb raider series

ItвЂ™s difficult to overstate how famous Phillips was in the 1940s and вЂ™50s, when-at the tender age of 26, with no credentials, training or connections-he organized a series of daring and extravagant archaeological quests in Africa and the Middle East, culminating in Yemen, where he led the first-ever American dig to a nearly disastrous end. And of course, Colt was one of his expeditionвЂ™s sponsors. He styled himself a steely-eyed gunslinger, bragging that his personally engraved six-shooters were his вЂњmost valuable insurance policy.вЂќ Yet he seems to have used them mostly to intimidate the giant spiders, and to entertain the Bedouin locals. Oh, fabulous- now heвЂ™s shooting!вЂќДЄ hapless can of peaches hops around in the sand as Phillips sprays bullets, but itвЂ™s a little unclear what he is aiming for. Korr, like me, is witnessing these scenes for the first time. 45! Fantastic!вЂќ shouts Rocky Korr, a retired collections manager who remains the museumвЂ™s reigning expert on the mid-century explorer Wendell Phillips. He looks rough and dashing-and also a bit like a boy playing dress up.

Archaeologists with sunburned necks whisk away at hunks of limestone.ДЄnd then a skinny, rather pale figure appears on-screen in aviator shades and a red-and-white headdress, a pair of pearl-handled Colt pistols by his side. There are close-ups of toiling camels, and huge, quarrelsome spiders, and regal dancing girls, their hair dipped in camel urine to keep it smooth. The moonscape of the Yemeni desert scrolls by. The first reel has just been digitized, and itвЂ™s playing on a nearby computer screen now. Sackler Gallery with the distinctive odor of decaying acetate. Now they fill a storage room of the Smithsonian Arthur M. These rusty film cans and little curlicues of movie clippings were hauled out of South Arabia more than 60 years ago, and some of them havenвЂ™t been watched since. The old reels of 16-millimeter film give off the sour, tangy smell of vinegar.