PALESTINE
EXPLORATION FUND
QUARTERLY STATEMENTS
FOR 1901
(January, April, July, & October 1901)
PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND, London, 1901
A rare collection of the Palestine Exploration Fund’s Quarterly Statements for 1901, including all four issues: January, April, July, and October 1901. The work of the PEF is covered in a series of detailed articles and reports, illustrated with numerous line drawings, plans and plates. This volume includes contributions from Colonel Conder - who, alongside Horatio Kitchener, was responsible for the PEF’s Survey of Western Palestine (1872–1878). The subjects covered in this volume include: The Site of Calvary, Women in the East, Mosaics at Jerusalem, Roman and Greek Inscriptions, The Holy Sepulchre, Mount of Olives, Golgotha, Tombs, Notes on various journeys and explorations, Petra, Jordan, etc.
This book is from the collection of the Irish archaelogist R. A. S. Macalister and has his signature and address details to the rear of the plate facing page 233. Macalister was Director of Excavations for the PEF and his work and reports featured in the pages of many of the PEF Quarterly Statements before the First World War. This volume dates from the year Macalister was appointed Director of Excavations for the PEF, and includes a number of articles and reports written by him.
Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister (1870 – 1950): was an Irish archaeologist. Macalister was born in Dublin, the son of Alexander Macalister, then Professor of Zoology at the University of Dublin. His father was appointed professor of anatomy at Cambridge University in 1883, and he was educated at The Perse School, and then studied at Cambridge University. Although his earliest interest was in the archaeology of Ireland, Macalister soon developed a strong interest in biblical archaeology. Along with Frederick J. Bliss, he excavated several towns in the Shephelah region of Ottoman Palestine from 1898 to 1900. Using advances in stratigraphy building on the work of Flinders Petrie, they developed a chronology for the region using ceramic typology. Upon Bliss' retirement, Macalister became director of excavations for the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) in 1901. From 1902 to 1909 he was responsible for the excavations at Gezer, in the modern state of Israel, just west of Jerusalem. This was one of the earliest large-scale scientific archaeological excavations in the region. The Gezer calendar found there is a very early paleo-Hebrew calendrical inscription. Macalister left the field of Biblical archaeology in 1909 to accept a position as professor of Celtic archaeology at University College, Dublin, where he taught until his retirement in 1943. During this period, he worked at the ancient Irish royal site at the Hill of Tara and was responsible for editing the catalogue of all known ogham inscriptions from Great Britain and Ireland. Many of his translations of Irish myths and legends are still widely used today. He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1910 and served as their president from 1926 to 1931. He was also president of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland from 1924 to 1928.
Palestine Exploration Fund: The Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) was founded under the royal patronage of Queen Victoria in 1865 by a group of distinguished academics and clergymen, most notably the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur Stanley, and Sir George Grove. The original mission statement of the PEF was to promote research into the archaeology and history, manners and customs and culture, topography, geology and natural sciences of biblical Palestine and the Levant. In the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, the PEF was central to the development of archaeology in the region, undertaking ambitious and well-chosen projects that significantly enhanced the knowledge of those working in the area. Key projects sponsored by the PEF included:
1867–1870: Excavations in Jerusalem by Warren and Birtles
1871–1878: The Survey of Western Palestine conducted by Conder and Kitchener
1890–1893: Excavations at Tell el-Hesi directed by Petrie and Bliss
1913–1914: The Wilderness of Zin Archaeological Survey conducted by Woolley and T. E. Lawrence.
Numerous reports, plans and maps were compiled by the explorers and scholars who worked for the PEF. These explorers include Charles Warren in Jerusalem and Palestine (1867–1870), Claude Conder and Horatio Kitchener on the Survey of Western Palestine (1872–1878), the Survey of Eastern Palestine (1880–81) and the Wady Arabah (1883–4), the excavations of Flinders Petrie and Frederick Jones Bliss at Tell el Hesi (1890–1892), the excavations of R.A.S. Macalister at Gezer (1902–06), Duncan Mackenzie’s excavations at Ain Shems-Beth Shemesh in 1910–1912, C. L. Woolley and T. E. Lawrence on the Wilderness of Zin Survey (1913–14), and many others.
Condition:
In good condition, ex-libris R. A. S. Macalister and Westminster College, Cambridge. The boards are in good condition, with general signs of use and some marks. The binding and hinges are very good and secure. The text is in very good condition, with a few marks. There is a bookplate of Westminster College, Cambridge on the front endpapers, and R. A. S. Macalister’s handwriiten details on the rear of the plate facing p.233. The illustrations and plates are in very good condition.
Published: 1901
Brown boards with gilt titling
Illustrated with line drawings and photographic plates
Dimensions: 145mm x 215mm
Pages: 436
***I have several other PEF books listed at the moment. Combined postage is available.***
Please email if you require any further information