Project summary
This digital pilot project set out to present a contextualised transcript of the Petra Exploration Fund Diary from the first scientific excavation at Petra in 1929.
The result is the Petra 1929 website which continues to be managed by Amara Thornton.
Project details
Location: Petra, Jordan
Year(s): 2019
Project director(s): Amara Thornton
Lead institutions and funding:
- University College London Institute of Archaeology
- CBRL (Centenary Award)
Project description
This digital pilot project set out to present a contextualised transcript of the Petra Exploration Fund Diary from the first scientific excavation at Petra in 1929.
The “uncorrected diary”, written by George Horsfield and Agnes Conway, details the progress of excavation probably for the benefit of the main funder, Henry Mond. The diary records the research of Melchett Expedition members George Horsfield, Agnes Conway, Ditlef Nielsen and Tawfiq Canaan as they examined the history of Petra from many angles over the two-month season. By digitising the 1929 diary (part of the UCL Institute of Archaeology’s archive), the project aims to provide added contextual information and images to bring the story of this important excavation in Petra’s history to a wider audience.
Including keywords and full reference information within each entry enables the diary to be filtered by place name, person name, author, subject or theme, highlighting other histories contained within the text of the diary. Now users can explore the document in an interactive way and reveal some of the hidden histories from the Horsfield Petra archive. The next steps are to continue to draw attention to the website as a resource and encourage wider visibility for archaeological archives.
The project’s website can be accessed here.
Project bibliography
Thornton, Amara. 2020. Petra: The first excavation. Bulletin of the Council for British Research in the Levant 2018-2019, p 23.
Published:29 November 2021
