Bodies of evidence: The human remains from Flinders Petrie’s excavations in British Mandate Palestine

Abstract

Background

In the 1920s and 1930s Flinders Petrie excavated several sites in British Mandate Palestine (Tell Jemmeh, Tell Fara and Tell el-ʿAjjul), encountering numerous burials dating from the Chalcolithic period down to the Ottoman period. The osteological finds were thought to have been discarded, until the authors identified a curated selection of skeletal human remains from these tombs at the Duckworth Laboratory in Cambridge in 2017/2018.

Methods

Rachael Sparks conducted archival research to explore how the human remains from Petrie’s excavations in the Southern Levant were recovered, recorded, curated and studied. This drew on original excavation records, contemporary publications, official and private correspondence, unpublished research notes, and the evidence of the human skeletal remains themselves.

Following on this archival investigation, Nina Maaranen conducted skeletal analyses on individuals from Bronze Age contexts – recording crania and mandibles using various non-invasive, macroscopic techniques to estimate age, sex and ancestry.

Results

It was established that selected skulls were sent to Karl Pearson’s Biometric Laboratory at University College in London for craniometric study as part of wider programmes of research into ancient populations. After the war, changes in the organisation of the Eugenics Department at the University led to the transfer of Pearson’s collection of human skulls to the Duckworth Laboratory in Cambridge, where attempts to get the material published were unsuccessful.

The current skeletal analysis of the assemblage revealed a preference for adult individuals, in line with the curation motivations of the original investigators. Earlier research on these remains was compared with our new data and contextualised within the theoretical and methodological development of bioanthropology and osteology.

Conclusions

Our investigation successfully identified the history of this assemblage, and revealed ethical issues surrounding the collection and subsequent use of some of these human remains, particularly where there may be familial links to modern Palestinian populations.

Plain language summary

This article is the result of investigations into the archaeological and skeletal evidence from the excavations of Flinders Petrie in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, exploring contemporary attitudes to human remains, their treatment during and after excavation, and subsequent research history. The human remains from this assemblage were first transferred to the biometric laboratory at University College, then on to the Duckworth Laboratory in Cambridge, but despite several attempts to have these individuals studied, they remained unpublished and were subsequently forgotten by the academic community. Our rediscovery of these remains has allowed us to produce the first lab analysis since their excavation, connecting them to their archaeological contexts, while raising several ethical questions about Petrie’s motivations and methods.