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Founded in 1865, the Palestine Exploration Fund is the oldest society in the world for the study of the ancient Levant. As a direct result of its work in the field, it has built a varied and unique collection of archaeological material, archives, photographs, and maps. These collections have direct relevance not only to archaeologists but to a wide range of scholars researching the history of archaeology and other disciplines. The PEF's archaeological collection is well contextualized for an historical collection of its age. The vast majority of our material comes from legal excavations, and conforms to the legal protocols and conventions in place at the time. Indeed, PEF personnel were directly involved in the implementation of some of those laws, and setting the standards of what was considered to be ‘good practice’ at the time. It is precisely because of this context that the material constitutes a “study collection” which, though outside of its original archaeological context, bears a direct relationship to our archives. Thus, it is not outside of its scholarly context. Consequently, issues of repatriation and restitution are less concerning for us than perhaps is the case for other collections of the same vintage. What we are concerned with is how international laws and protocols are upheld today.Most of our material comes from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century projects in Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine. These projects included Warren's excavations in Jerusalem (1866–1870), the Survey of Western Palestine (1871–1878), the excavations at Tell el-Hesy (1890–1891), Gezer (1902–1906), ‘Ain Shems-Beth Shemesh (1910–1912), and the Wilderness of Zin survey (1913–1914). Donations of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century material include the significant photographic collections of Elizabeth Anne Finn, Captain Arthur Rhodes, and the watercolors of William Simpson and James Clark. Mandate period projects include the Ophel and Tyropoeon Valley excavations (1923 and 1925 respectively) and Samaria (1930s). Material from these undertakings is further augmented by donations of significant documentary and photographic archives from individuals such as John Garstang, Olga Tufnell, C. N. Johns, Hilma Granqvist, Iain Browning, and Nigel Hepper. Consequently, the PEF's collections are a mixture of material collected by the PEF itself, and by other people who had worked and traveled in the region. It is this relationship that is most important, and most necessary to maintain, not so much the artifacts themselves.The PEF's acquisition policy is very clear. We do not accept donations of unprovenanced archaeological material, and since the 1900s we have not been offered such material. The acquisition of provenanced material would have to be compliant with the various international protocols and conventions for it to be considered for acceptance. We do consider donations of other material such as scientific equipment, and archival and photographic material if they are relevant to our collection. We supplement our archives with documentary and photographic material from a variety of sources, to enhance the social historical value of our archives. Our library is an area that we continue to develop, to ensure it stays as relevant for researchers as possible. As such, our library and collections are as much about the history of the PEF and exploration in the region as they are about the material culture and natural history of the region itself. While we do not exhibit our collections, we do loan our material to exhibitions both in the UK and abroad. In the last 15 or so years, we have loaned material to a wide range of exhibitions, covering subjects as diverse as Mandate Palestine to Pre-Raphaelite art.The artifacts and archives of the PEF are a direct reflection of its long and interesting history. It was founded as an independent, membership society for the scientific exploration in what was commonly known as ‘The Holy Land,’ or more accurately, the southern part of the Levant, termed ‘Palestine.’ It was the first organization of its kind for the study of the area, and today is the oldest surviving society in the world. Its founders represented a wide cross-section of influential Victorians, and included clerics, scientists, soldiers, politicians, social reformers, and artists. At the helm were Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley of Westminster, and George Grove. Dean Stanley was an influential cleric in the Church of England, and a progressive voice, and George Grove was a civil engineer, then running the Crystal Palace in south London. Grove also became very well known as a leading musicologist. Perhaps less well known is his contribution to biblical scholarship. He was a Hebrew scholar, an assistant editor on William Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (John Murray, London 1863) and contributed significantly to Stanley's Sinai and Palestine (John Murray, London 1856).These two men were able to persuade people to join and support the new society, and to contribute towards its work. In particular, Grove's connections with the Royal Engineers proved invaluable. The Royal Engineers were, without doubt, the most prominent surveyors and cartographers of their time. He was good friends with Captain Charles Wilson (who had conducted the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem just one year before the PEF was founded), and through this connection he was able to employ some of the best graduates for the required survey and reconnaissance work. This arrangement ensured that the mapping and cartography that was carried out under the auspices of the PEF was done to the very highest standards of the day. In return, the arrangement provided the Royal Engineers with a handy venue for field training for new officers and NCOs in a friendly part of the world. At this time, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Great Britain. From its foundation up to the middle of the twentieth century, the PEF conducted numerous surveys, excavations, and studies all over the region, making a unique contribution to the study for the region, and in the process, accumulating a huge amount of data. The collections have been divided into the following categories: Documentary and Map archives: by far the largest part of the collection, with over 14,000 entries on the database so far, with much material yet to be fully catalogued. This holds material from all the PEF's significant projects as well as other donated material (Fig. 1). FIG. 1A sketch map of the Petra Region by Lieut. Kitchener R.E., from the Wadi Arabah Survey of 1883–1884, and a watercolor of a Philistine pot from the excavations of Ain Shems-Beth Shemesh drawn by Francis G. Newton in 1912.(Both courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Photographic archives: both nineteenth- and twentieth-century images generated by the PEF and other individuals or organizations. Most of the nineteenth-century images are now catalogued, but the twentieth-century photographs are an on-going project (Fig. 2). FIG. 2Photographs of ‘Athlit Castle by Sergeant Henry Phillips R.E., 1866, and the water wheels of Hama undergoing repair, by Olga Tufnell, 1930s.(Both courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Scientific equipment: a small collection primarily of survey equipment used on the PEF's surveys from Charles Warren in the 1860s to Woolley and T. E. Lawrence in 1913, and also John Garstang's cameras as used on his Jericho excavations in the 1930s (Fig 3). FIG. 3A theodolite and ‘Gunter’ measuring chain used on the Survey of Western Palestine and other PEF surveys.(All courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Ethnographic objects: a small collection of ethnographic material collected in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, consisting of textiles and items of personal adornment, and some ceramics and household ornaments (Fig. 4). FIG. 4A collection of children's shoes from Damascus donated to the PEF by F.W. Holland in the 1860s.(Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Archaeological objects: material from the PEF's excavations, and one or two items historically donated by individuals. The material covers all time periods, from the Palaeolithic to the Ottoman period. The best-represented sites are: Jerusalem, Tell el-Hesy, Samaria, and the Wilderness of Zin Survey, with additional material from Ashkelon, and the Shephela sites (Fig. 5). FIG. 5Palaeolithic flints from the Wilderness of Zin Survey (1912–1914), and ivories from the Israelite palace at Samaria, from the 1930s excavations.(Both courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Natural History: consisting of a cabinet of stuffed birds from the Survey of Western Palestine, dating to the late 1870s, an herbarium of samples compiled by Nigel Hepper in the 1970s, and some geological samples from the Ordnance Survey of Sinai (1868–1869) (Fig. 6). FIG. 6The stuffed birds killed by Sergeant Anderson during the Survey of Western Palestine and identified by the Rev. Canon Tristram, 1972–1975.(Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Forgeries: a small collection of so-called Shapira or Moabite forgeries, purchased for the PEF by Lieut. Kitchener in 1877 during the Survey of Western Palestine (Fig. 7). FIG. 7One of the ceramic Moabite forgeries from the 1870s, in the form of a large hollow ring bearing a human head, and relief ‘inscription’ on the body.(Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Numismatic items & medals: coins from excavations such as Gezer as well as collected coins. Medals commemorating events such as the death of Kitchener in 1916 (Fig. 8a and b). FIG. 8Kitchener Memorial Medal from 1918.(Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Casts, models and squeezes: a collection of over 1000 items comprising cast copies of artifacts from the Gezer, and Shephela sites excavations, as well as models of famous edifices, relief maps, commemorative stele, and squeezes and other copies of inscriptions. The casts of objects from our excavations between the mid-1890s and the First World War are an indicator of the changing antiquities laws in Ottoman Palestine, and the PEF's roles in developing strategies to abide by them whilst satisfying our subscribers' wish to see results from our work. In a sense they are the precursor to the 3d scanned images of today. The original artifacts remained either in Jerusalem, or went to Constantinople. Those in Jerusalem from Gezer, the Shephela sites, Beth Shemesh, and Jerusalem formed the basis of the Rockefeller Museum's collection (Cobbing and Tubb 2005; Fig. 9). FIG. 9One of the many casts of scarabs from the Gezer excavations of 1902–1909, and a nineteenth-century model of the Herodian Temple in Jerusalem by Johann Martin Tenz.(Both courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Pictures: a small but beautiful collection of watercolors, prints and drawings, and the occasional oil from four main sources: the sketches of Elisabeth Anne Finn, watercolors of Warren's work in Jerusalem by William ‘Crimea’ Simpson R. I., watercolors and drawings of landscapes and people by Lieut. Claude R. Conder R. E., from the Survey of Western Palestine, and landscapes, interiors, and people in watercolor, charcoal, and oil by James Clark, R. I. (Fig. 10). FIG. 10Watercolor sketch of surveyors at work in the Samaria highlands by Claude R. Conder 1872, and a watercolor of a Bedouin tent near Es-Salt, Transjordan, by James Clark from the 1890s.(Both courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.)Ephemera: photographic envelopes & other similar items, including the cigarette boxes from the 1930s Samaria excavations which until relatively recently held the PEF's collection of small finds from those excavations (Fig. 11). FIG. 11A selection of containers used for storing small finds from the Samaria excavations in the 1930s.(Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.) The PEF's library is also of particular value to specialists interested in the material culture and environment of the southern Levant. Because of the breadth of our collection focusing on a small corner of the world, we attract a diversity of scholars and researchers. In recent years, we have welcomed artists, textile experts, school children, climate scientists, numismatists, epigraphers, amateur archaeology societies, film makers, military and social historians, postgraduate course groups, and novelists as well as core archaeologists and ancient historians.For researchers, the PEF's collections and library work well together. A drawing will accompany a letter, a photograph and sometimes an artifact, all of which connect to the publication, which we will have in the library. As such, they are of great value to researchers. The PEF is a very creative place for researchers to come and work. It has taken its position of political neutrality very seriously over the years, and continues to do so. After an initial visit to see what we have, anyone wanting to use the library and collections must become a PEF member, but other than that, we are open to all regardless of profession, age, or nationality.We have a team of volunteers to undertake much of the actual work on the collections, and, being independent, we are able to design our own program of work that suits us without adherence to any externally imposed targets or requirements. The volunteers probably have more opportunity for ‘hands on’ experience with collections material than in many other places, meaning that they actually learn real skills, have real experiences, and make a real contribution to the management of the collections. Many feel a lasting connection to the PEF, which remains long after they have finished their voluntary work here.Our volunteers come from all kinds of places. We have undergraduate and postgraduate students from various UK and European universities, internship students from the States who come and work for a set period of time, and retired people with valuable skills, keen to have an opportunity to do something worthwhile and interesting. They are encouraged to extend what they do at the PEF if they are willing and able, so they supply material for our blog, Twitter and Facebook pages, give lectures on the material they have unearthed in our collections, and even join our Committee.The PEF is actively engaged with community outreach. It holds a free public lecture program at the British Museum in partnership with the British Museum's Department of Middle Eastern Antiquities, which regularly attracts audiences of over 200. We also publish large parts of our collections, particularly the photographs, pictures and archives in both specialist and more general volumes.In this manner, the PEF has survived 150 years. During this time, the emphasis has changed from an organization conducting its own field research into one funding and supporting the research of others, publishing that research, and providing a unique collection to curate. There are numerous complex reasons for this change. We expect numerous challenges with this collection in the future. The PEF's current premises (our single largest donation, built in 1911) is now inadequate for our needs, and this limits what can be achieved regarding the program of work. Finding an appropriate space for the PEF and its library and collections to exist for the next 150 years and beyond is a priority.Conserving, documenting and digitizing our collections, and making them increasingly accessible to an expanding audience is our continuing task for the future. The bulk of the nineteenth-century archives was catalogued and conserved in the 1970s, and those records have been entered and updated onto the PEF's databases. A significant portion of the nineteenth-century photographs, including the PEF's unique collection of glass plate negatives from its own expeditions, was conserved and laboriously researched and catalogued in the 1990s, and the PEF's small but significant collection of watercolor prints, drawings and oils received similar treatment. The manuscript field tracings from the Survey of Western Palestine have been scanned, as have many of the photographs, the watercolors, and other archival artifacts. Archive collections, which have lain in boxes for years, have been sorted, rehoused in suitable storage, and catalogued.In this we are entirely reliant on our volunteers, their interests and skills, and their time. Olga Tufnell's very substantial and complex archive took one volunteer, working almost full time, 18 months to fully process, and the scanning of the Survey of Western Palestine maps took a succession of volunteers over four years to complete. It is not possible for the PEF to have digitalization, conservation or documentation programs similar to those of larger organizations, because it just doesn't have the resources. Finding good partners to assist in projects is an important part of this, and we are keen to engage in collaborative projects, which ultimately benefit everyone. Linked to all of this is our accessibility, both to the scholarly community and beyond. As well as our ‘real world’ outreach such as our lectures and publications, we are always looking at ways of building our online presence through our website, and particularly our blog and social media.No less important, the PEF is a neutral territory, and so we are in effect a safe space for people to come and work. As such, the most unlikely people are sometimes thrown together, and find common ground. New subjects for research, joint projects, and mutual friends are discovered from across the political divide, making the PEF, in a sense, a center for East-West dialogue. Consequently, the PEF's continued existence as a neutral safe space is one that we believe enhances accessibility to the cultural heritage of the region, and this is positively valued by those who use the collections.
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