History of Archaeology

The following list of books, articles and online resources offer an introduction to the history of archaeology in the Middle East. They represent past and current research in the field, and also highlight increasingly accessible archaeological archives.

Books
Albright, W. 1963. The Archaeology of Palestine. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Bernhardsson, M, 2005. Reclaiming a Plundered Past: Archaeology and Nation Building in Modern Iraq. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 

Abu el-Haj, N. 2001. Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Goode, J. 2007. Negotiating the Past: Archaeology, Nationalism, and Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1919-1941. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Laidlaw, S., Sparks, R.T. and P.J. Ucko. 2007. A Future for the Past: Petrie’s Palestinian Collection. [Catalogue for exhibition at the Brunei Gallery, London]

Moorey, R. 1991. A Century of Biblical Archaeology. Cambridge: Lutterworth.

Moscrop, J. J. 2000. Measuring Jerusalem: The Palestine Exploration Fund and British Interests in the Holy Land. London: Leicester University Press.

Reid, D. M. 2002. Whose Pharaohs? Archaeology, Museums and Egyptian National Identity from Napoleon to World War I. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 

Reid, D. M. 2015. Contesting Antiquity: Archaeologies, Museums, and the Struggle for Identities from World War I to Nasser. American University in Cairo Press. 
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Silberman, N. 1982. Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archeology and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land, 1799-1917. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Articles
Gibson, S. 1999. British Archaeological Institutions in Mandate Palestine, 1917-1948. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 131 (2): 115-143. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1179/peq.1999.131.2.115 

James, F.W. 1979. Petrie in the Wadi Ghazzeh and at Gaza: Harris Colt’s ‘Candid Camera’. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 111: 75-77.

Sparks, R.T. 2013. PUBLICISING PETRIE: Financing Fieldwork in British Mandate Palestine (1926–1938). Present Pasts 5(1):2, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/pp.56

Sparks, R.T. 2013. Flinders Petrie Through Word and Deed: Re-evaluating Petrie’s Field Techniques and their Impact on Object Recovery in British Mandate Palestine. Palestine Exploration Quarterly 145 (2): 1-17.

Thornton, A. 2015. Social Networks in the History of Archaeology: Placing Archaeology in its Context. Historiographical approaches to past archaeological research. (pp. 69-94) Berlin Studies of the Ancient World 32. Berlin: Edition TOPOI.

Thornton, A. 2012. Archaeologists-in-Training: Students of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, 1920-1936. Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 1:1, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/4f293686e4d62.

Thornton, A. (Ed.). 2012. Tourism as Colonial Policy? The History of Heritage Tourism in Mandate Palestine and Transjordan [Special Issue] Public Archaeology 11 (4). (subscription)

Tufnell, O. 1985. “Reminiscences of Excavations at Lachish”. Address delivered by Olga Tufnell at Lachish on July 6, 1983. Tel Aviv. [12 pages?]

Online Resources/Blogs
Coming soon!

Obtuaries
Tufnell, O. 1980. Gerald Lankester Harding, Levant 12.1, iii.

Winnett, F.V. 1980. Tribute: Gerald Lankester Harding 1901-1979, Biblical Archaeologist 43.2, 127.

New York Times. 1979. Gerald Lankester Harding, New York Times Feb. 13th, B19.