The Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) is a non-profit organisation that promotes humanities and social science research in the Levant. [1] It consists of two research institutes, the Kenyon Institute in Jerusalem [2] and the British Institute in Amman (BIA) in Amman, Jordan. [3]
The CBRL was established in 1998 as an amalgamation of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (now the Kenyon Institute) and the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (now the British Institute in Amman). [1] While its predecessors mainly existed to support archaeological research in their respective host countries, the newly formed CBRL, sponsored by the British Academy, [4] [5] broadened its remit to include research into the history, culture and society of the entire Levant. [1]
Plans to open a CBRL institute in Damascus have been suspended due to the ongoing Syrian Civil War. [1]
Levant (ISSN 1756-3801) is an academic journal of archaeological research in the Levant, first published in 1969 by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, [6] and later by the CBRL. [7] It is currently produced by Maney Publishing and publishes three issues per year. [8]
Since 2004 the CBRL has also published research monographs as the "Levant Supplementary Series". [9]
The CBRL launched a second journal, Contemporary Levant ( ISSN 2058-184X), in 2016, [7] covering research on contemporary politics, society and culture in the Levant. [10]
The CBRL also produces an annual Bulletin ( ISSN 1752-7279) as its document of record, which also contains reports on research sponsored by the CBRL in the previous year aimed at a general readership. [11] It was formerly known as the CBRL Newsletter. [12]
Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon, was a British archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She led excavations of Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, from 1952 to 1958, and has been called one of the most influential archaeologists of the 20th century. She was Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford, from 1962 to 1973, having undertaken her own studies at Somerville College, Oxford.
Israel Finkelstein is an Israeli archaeologist, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. Finkelstein is active in the archaeology of the Levant and is an applicant of archaeological data in reconstructing biblical history. Finkelstein is the current excavator of Megiddo, a key site for the study of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Levant.
UCL's Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of the Social & Historical Sciences Faculty of University College London (UCL) which it joined in 1986 having previously been a school of the University of London. It is currently one of the largest centres for the study of archaeology, cultural heritage and museum studies in the world, with over 100 members of staff and 600 students housed in a 1950s building on the north side of Gordon Square in the Bloomsbury area of Central London.
The American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR), founded in 1900 as the American School of Oriental Study and Research in Palestine, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, which supports the research and teaching of the history and cultures of the Near East and Middle Eastern countries. ASOR supports scholarship, research, exploration, and archeological fieldwork and offers avenues of disseminating this research through their publications. ASOR also provides support for undergraduates and graduates in institutions of higher education around the world pursuing studies of the history and cultures of the Near and Middle East.
Sebastia is a Palestinian village of about 3,205 inhabitants, located in the Nablus Governorate of the State of Palestine, some 12 kilometers northwest of the city of Nablus.
Steven Mithen, is an archaeologist. He is noted for his work on the evolution of language, music and intelligence, prehistoric hunter-gatherers, and the origins of farming. He is professor of early prehistory at the University of Reading.
The Amman Citadel is an archeological site at the center of downtown Amman, the capital of Jordan. The L-shaped hill is one of the seven hills (jebal) that originally made up Amman.
Andrew Michael Tangye Moore, also known as A. M. T. Moore, is a British archaeologist and academic. He is a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
Samaria was the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel between c. 880 BCE and c. 720 BCE. It is the namesake of Samaria, a historical region bounded by Judea to the south and by Galilee to the north. After the Assyrian conquest of Israel, Samaria was annexed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire and continued as an administrative centre. It retained this status in the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Achaemenid Persian Empire before being destroyed during the Wars of Alexander the Great. Later, under the hegemony of the Roman Republic and the subsequent Roman Empire, the city was rebuilt and expanded by the Jewish king Herod the Great, who also fortified it and renamed it "Sebastia" in honour of the Roman emperor Augustus.
William Osbert Lancaster was a British social anthropologist who specialised in the study of the Arab world, particularly the bedouin tribes in the Levant and Middle East.
Tell Jisr, Tell el-Jisr or Tell ej-Jisr is a hill and archaeological site 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) northwest of Joub Jannine in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.
The Kenyon Institute, previously known as the British School of Archaeology at Jerusalem (BSAJ), is a British research institute supporting humanities and social science studies in Israel and Palestine. It is part of the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) and is supported by the British Academy.
Crystal-Margaret Bennett was a British archaeologist. A student of Kathleen Kenyon, Bennett was a pioneer of archaeological research in Jordan and founded the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History.
The British Institute in Amman, formerly known as the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (BIAAH), is a research institute in Amman, Jordan. It is part of the Council for British Research in the Levant. The BIA's patron is Prince Hassan bin Talal and in 2024, its director was Dr Jane Humphris.
Wadi Feynan or Wadi Faynan is a major wadi and region in southern Jordan, on the border between Tafilah Governorate and Aqaba and Ma'an Governorates. It originates in the southern Jordanian Highlands with the confluence of Wadi Dana and Wadi Ghuweyr, and drains into the Dead Sea via Wadi Araba.
Carol Palmer is a British anthropologist, environmental archaeologist and botanist. She is an Honorary Fellow at Bournemouth University, and a part of the Thimar collective. She is also a former Director of the British Institute in Amman.
Anna Belfer-Cohen is an Israeli archaeologist and paleoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Belfer-Cohen excavated and studied many important prehistoric sites in Israel including Hayonim and Kebara Caves and open-air sites such as Nahal Ein Gev I and Nahal Neqarot. She has also worked for many years in the Republic of Georgia, where she made important contributions to the study of the Paleolithic sequence of the Caucasus following her work at the cave sites of Dzoudzuana, Kotias and Satsrublia. She is a specialist in biological Anthropology, prehistoric art, lithic technology, the Upper Paleolithic and modern humans, the Natufian-Neolithic interface and the transition to village life.
Alexis Mallon (1875–1934), more commonly known as Père Mallon, was a French Jesuit priest and archaeologist. He founded the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem and made important early contributions to the study of the prehistory of the Levant with his excavations at Teleilat el Ghassul (1929–1934).
British School of Archaeology may refer to some of the British International Research Institutes supported by the British Academy, of which now there are eight:
Geraldine Talbot was a British archaeologist and librarian for the Institute of Archaeology Library, University College London.