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History
The PEF was founded in 1865 by a group of Biblical archaeologists and clergymen. The most notable of these were the Dean of Westminster Abbey, Arthur P. Stanley, and Sir George Grove (who also founded the Royal College of Music, and was responsible for Grove's Dictionary of Music). It was established "for the purpose of investigating the Archaeology, Geography, Geology and Natural History of the Holy Land."[1]
The first preliminary meeting of the Society of the Palestine Exploration Fund was held in the Jerusalem Chamber of the Palace of Westminister. The original prospectus declared:
"No country should be of so much interest to us as that in which the documents of our Faith were written, and the momentous events they describe enacted. At the same time no country more urgently requires illustration ... Even to a casual traveller in the Holy Land the Bible becomes, in its form, and therefore to some extent in its substance, a new book. Much would be gained by ...bringing to light the remains of so many races and generations which must lie concealed under the accumulation of rubbish and ruins on which those villages stand ..."[1]
The PEF conducted many early excavations of biblical and postbiblical sites around the Levant, as well as studies involving natural history, anthropology, history and geography.
Among other noteworthy individuals associated with the fund were:
- Charles Warren,
- Horatio Kitchener,
- Edward Henry Palmer,
- George Grove,
- T. E. Lawrence,
- Kathleen Kenyon,
- Arthur Stanley.
The PEF Today
Today the fund is based in Marylebone, London, and holds regular events and lectures as well as providing for an annual grant for various projects. Their offices also house collections of photographs, pictures, maps and various antiquaries.
See also
External links
- Palestine Exploration Fund - official web site
- The PEF map published in 1880
Bibliography
- Shehadeh, Raja (2007), Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape, Scribner, ISBN 9781416569964, 1416569969
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