Gerald Lankester Harding
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Gerald Lankester Harding | |
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Born | 8 December 1901 Tianjin, China |
Died | 11 February 1979 London, United Kingdom | (aged 77)
Resting place | Jerash, Jordan |
Citizenship | United Kingdom |
Occupation(s) | Archaeologist, Chief Inspector of Antiquities (British Mandate of Palestine) |
Gerald Lankester Harding
Life
Harding was born in
In 1926, Petrie was excavating at
In 1936, Harding was appointed by the British Mandate government as chief inspector of Antiquities to succeed George Horsfield.[3] With the help of his Bedouin assistant Hasan Awad who was also a superb archaeologist, Harding revitalised the Department of Antiquities and set about exploring, photographing, and cataloguing the sites and antiquities of Jordan. His photographs and meticulous records still are held by the department and record much that has since disappeared. As well as conducting a large number of excavations and surveys, he drew up a set of archaeological maps of Jordan, founded the Archaeological Museum on the citadel in Amman, and in 1951 set up the journal The Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, which still is in existence.
Harding was very conscious of the need to establish a cadre of young Jordanian archaeologists to succeed him, and over a long period pestered first the Mandate and then the independent Jordanian government to provide funds for Jordanian students to study abroad because, at that time, there were no universities in Jordan. He managed to achieve funding for one student to go to the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, but the student, having finished his course, took a job in the UK, and after this the governments in Jordan were unwilling to pay for others to study archaeology abroad.
In 1948, Harding learned of the existence of the
In 1948, Harding and de Vaux finally learned the location of the cave from which the scrolls had come, and together they excavated it.[5] Subsequently, they investigated the settlement site of Qumran and examined two tombs in the Qumran Cemetery. In February 1952, he was involved with de Vaux in the excavation of caves in Wadi Murabba'at.[6] Harding continued to oversee the matters regarding Qumran and the scrolls until 1956 when the Suez Crisis occurred, he together with John Bagot Glubb (Glubb Pasha) and all the remaining British officials were dismissed by the Jordanian government.
In 1959, Harding published The Antiquities of Jordan, an overview of the many and varied archaeological sites of Jordan, which includes a chapter on Qumran, and which remained the most popular guidebook to Jordan for several decades.
The same year, Harding was asked by the British government to conduct the first major archaeological survey in the Aden Protectorate (southern Yemen). This he did and published his results in his book Archaeology in the Aden Protectorate. He also helped to set up and organise the Aden Museum and to secure for it and catalog the famous Muncherjee collection of ancient South Arabian antiquities.
In the late 1940s, Harding had become interested in the Ancient North Arabian inscriptions of which there are many thousands in Jordan. After 1956, he devoted his considerable energies to publishing several thousands of them. In 1971, he produced An Index to the Concordance of Pre-Islamic Names and Inscriptions, a massive work which is used universally by those working on Ancient North and South Arabian inscriptions.
Harding died in London, where he had been sent for medical treatment. However, as a mark of respect for the service he had given to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, his ashes were returned to Jordan and by permission of the authorities were buried overlooking the archaeological site at Jerash.[7]
Harding reportedly inspired the character of
Selected publications by Harding
- 1949 "Recent work on the Jerash forum" Palestine Exploration Quarterly81 (Jan.–April 1949): 12–20.
- 1949 "The Dead Sea Scrolls" Palestine Exploration Quarterly 81 (July–Oct. 1949): 112–116.
- 1952 "Khirbet Qumran and Wady Muraba'at" Palestine Exploration Quarterly 84 (May–Oct. 1952): 104–109.
- 1953 Four Tomb Groups from Jordan (London: Palestine Exploration Fund)
- 1953 "The Cairn of Hani'" Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan3 (1953): 8–56
- 1958 "Recent discoveries in Jordan" Palestine Exploration Quarterly 90 (Jan.–Jun. 1958): 7–18.
- 1959 The Antiquities of Jordan (London: Lutterworth Press).
- 1971 An Index and Concordance of Pre-Islamic Names and Inscriptions (University of Toronto, Near and Middle East Series 8)
- 1978 with F.V. Winnett Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns (University of Toronto, Near and Middle East Series 9)
- A full bibliography of Harding's works, prepared by Michael Macdonald, is published as "A Bibliography of Gerald Lankester Harding" in Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 24 (1980): 8–12.
Footnotes
- ^ Bennet, C.M. "G. Lankester Harding: An Appreciation", The Jordan Times 15 February 1979, p. 3
- ^ Drower, 1985
- ^ Harding 1959, xiii
- ^ Allegro 1956, pp. 20–22, 32–34.
- ^ VanderKam 2002, p. 12.
- ^ Allegro 1956, p. 35.
- ^ "Dead Sea Scrolls | Cast of Characters | the Dead Sea Scrolls and Why They Mattter". Archived from the original on 31 May 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
- ^ "A very special contribution to TNC.com from Mr. Blatty himself!". TheNinthConfiguration.com. 3 May 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
One [photo] is of a Man named Gerald Lankester Harding, whom I knew when I was stationed in Beirut. He was formerly Curator of Antiquities in Jerusalem at which time he was instrumental in bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls into view of the public: an old Bedouin led him to the cave containing the scrolls. Anyway, Gerald was the physical model in my mind when I created the character of Father Merrin [from The Exorcist], whose first name, please note, is Lankester.
- ^ "'The Exorcist' source material, Undated". Georgetown University Archival Resources. Georgetown University. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
References
- Allegro, John M., The Dead Sea Scrolls (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1956).
- Drower, Margaret S. 1985. "Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology" (London: Victor Gollancz, 1985)
- de Vaux, Roland, "La Grotte des Manuscrits Hébreux", Revue Biblique 56 (1949), 586–609.
- Harding, Gerald Lankester, The Antiquities of Jordan (London: Lutterworth Press, 1959).
- Macdonald, Michael "In Memoriam Gerald Lankester Harding" Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 23 (1979): 198–200.
- Sparks, Rachael Thyrza. 2019. Digging with Petrie: Gerald Lankester Harding at Tell Jemmeh, 1926–1927. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 29(1): 3, pp. 1–16. doi:10.5334/bha-609.
- VanderKam, James & Flint, Peter, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls (HarperSanFrancisco, 2002) ISBN 0-06-068464-X
- Winnett, Fred V. "Gerald Lankester Harding: 1901–1979" Biblical Archaeologist, American Schools of Oriental Research. Spring 1980: 127