Abstract
APPREHENSION has been felt among archæologists lest the further exploration of Tell Duweir, the Biblical Lachish, should have to be abandoned, owing to the murder of Mr. J. L. Starkey, the director of the Marst on-Wellcome Archæological Expedition to the Near East, by whom the mound was being excavated. The death of Mr. Starkey is universally regarded as an irreparable loss to Palestinian studies ; but the blow would have been even heavier had it not been possible to continue work on this important site, which has already provided so much valuable material bearing on the interpretation of more than one crucial period in the history of the country and its cultural development. This fear has now been allayed by the announcement that the excavation will continue, at any rate for the present. Arrangements have been made by the High Commissioner for it to be carried on under the supervision of Mr. Lankester Harding, who was recently appointed director of antiquities in Transjordania. Mr. Harding was Mr. Starkey's principal assistant in 1932–36. He is, therefore, not only well acquainted with the character of the site and the lie of its stratification, but also—and this is of no little importance—he is thoroughly familiar with the scheme of operations, which Mr. Starkey had plotted out in relation to the importance of the areas to be excavated, so far as this could be gauged in advance.
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Further Exploration of Tell Duweir, Palestine. Nature 141, 155 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141155b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141155b0