Flinders Petrie excavates Tell el-Hesi (1890)

In 1890, Flinders Petrie conducted a six-week excavation at Tell el-Hesi, sponsored by the Palestine Exploration Fund. This work represented the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land. Petrie mistakenly identified the site as the biblical Lachish, an error later corrected. His methods, including stratigraphy and seriation, established new standards for chronology and the understanding of tell formation.

Episodes

Background and detail

Background. Flinders Petrie, an English Egyptologist and pioneer of systematic archaeological methodology, made his first foray into Palestine in 1890. Sponsored by the Palestine Exploration Fund, he excavated Tell el-Hesi. This six-week project was the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land, setting new standards for recording and studying artefacts.

Site Identification. Petrie identified Tell el-Hesi as the biblical site of Lachish. This identification was accepted by his successor, Frederick Jones Bliss, but is no longer accepted by modern scholarship. The legacy row's note regarding this mistaken identification is corrected here, preserving the historical record of the error.

People involved

Sources

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