Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope was a British adventurer, writer, antiquarian, and one of the most famous travellers of her age. Her excavation of Ascalon in 1815 is considered the first to use modern archaeological principles, and her use of a medieval Italian document is described as "one of the earliest uses of textual sources by field archaeologists". Her letters and memoirs made her famous as an explorer.

Ascalon was an ancient Near East port city on the Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant that played a major role in several historical periods up until the destruction of its strategically significant fortifications and port in the 13th century by the Mamluks, diminishing its importance.