Misplaced Pages

#371628

93-413: The Palestine Exploration Fund 's Survey of Western Palestine in 1883 described Beit Jimal (alt. sp. Beit el Jemâl ) as possessing a natural spring three-quarters of a mile to the east, while to the south were caves. Natural brushwood consisting mainly of oak, buckthorn and mastic trees can be seen on the adjacent hill country lying to its south. To the east of Beit Jimal at a few hours' walking distance

186-594: A Palestinian Authority -controlled area. In 2013, the monastery suffered from a "price tag" attack , when the hallway of the monastery was firebombed and the slogans "price tag," "death to the Gentiles," and "revenge" were sprayed on its walls. The monastery was vandalized several times in subsequent years. A meteorological station was established in Beit Jimal in 1919 which is still in operation today. Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund

279-537: A tabula ansata . The writing on it was eventually deciphered by Emile Puech, expert in ancient writing from the Ecole Biblique. The writing ran, ΔΙΑΚΟΝΙΚΩΝ ΣΤΕΦΑΝΟΥ ΠΡΩΤΟΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΣ , " Diaconicon of Stephen the Protomartyr". A diaconicon of a Byzantine church was one of the two spaces or chapels flanking the sanctuary, which often housed holy relics . This is therefore solid evidence for identifying Beit Jimal with

372-911: A Jewish state in Palestine, leading to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict . On the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabs were able to establish several independent states. In 1916 Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca , established the Kingdom of Hejaz , while the Emirate of Riyadh was transformed into the Sultanate of Nejd . In 1926 the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz was formed, which in 1932 became the kingdom of Saudi Arabia . The Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen became independent in 1918, while

465-524: A Maronite uprising in Mount Lebanon, a French-led naval force arrived to help, making threats against the governor, Dawood Pasha, at the Sultan's Porte and later removing Karam to safety. The British were awarded three mandated territories, with one of Sharif Hussein 's sons, Faisal , installed as King of Iraq and Transjordan providing a throne for another of Hussein's sons, Abdullah . Mandatory Palestine

558-627: A library containing books pertaining to the diverse interests of itself and its members. The journal of the PEF devoted to the study of the history, archaeology and geography of the Levant has appeared under two successive titles: For more see below under Further reading . Partition of the Ottoman Empire The partition of the Ottoman Empire (30 October 1918 – 1 November 1922)

651-793: A national home. Lastly, the British promised via the Hussein–McMahon Correspondence that the Hashemite family would have lordship over most land in the region in return for their support in the Great Arab Revolt . The Arab Revolt, which was in part orchestrated by Lawrence, resulted in British forces under General Edmund Allenby defeating the Ottoman forces in 1917 in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and occupying Palestine and Syria . The land

744-428: A need to secure the area because of its strategic position on the route to Colonial India and perceived itself as locked in a struggle with Russia for imperial influence known as The Great Game . These powers disagreed over their contradictory post-war aims and made several dual and triple agreements. Syria and Lebanon became a French protectorate (thinly disguised as a League of Nations Mandate ). French control

837-711: A people without a land ," which was to become widely used by advocates of Jewish settlement in Palestine. And, he added: "But let it return into the hands of the Israelites..." In 1878, the Treasurer's statement listed over 130 local associations of the PEF in the United Kingdom (including Ireland). There were also branches in Canada and Australia, and Gaza City and Jerusalem . Expenditure in 1877 amounted to £2,959 14s 11d. Notable persons associated with PEF: The first 21 years of

930-452: A population of 37 households, all Muslims . They paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 3,500 akçe . In 1838, Beit el-Jemal was noted as a Muslim village in the Er-Ramleh area. It was further noted to be in "ruins". Victor Guérin visited in 1863, and reported that

1023-643: A population of 59; 56 Christians and 3 Muslims , where the Christians were 29 Roman Catholics, 24 Melkites and 2 Maronites . By the 1931 census this had increased to 168; 78 Christians and 90 Muslims, in a total of 22 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Jimal consisted of 240; 120 Muslims and 120 Christians and the land area was 4,878 dunams , according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 715 dunams were designated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,899 for cereals, while 1,264 dunams were classified as non-cultivable land. During

SECTION 10

#1732855502372

1116-469: A unique insight into the lives of two of the women comprising the PEF workforce. Subsequent directors only referred to the women in their employ as anonymous labourers, sometimes complaining that they brought too much gossip—though in Bliss' journals, he recounts more familial and romantic tension that caused trouble on site among the men. For some years, the fund's office was located north of Wigmore Street in

1209-718: Is a British society based in London . It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem by Royal Engineers of the War Department. The Fund is the oldest known organization in the world created specifically for the study of the Levant region, also known as Palestine . Often simply known as the PEF , its initial objective was to carry out surveys of the topography and ethnography of Ottoman Palestine – producing

1302-510: Is held before an lecture. Each year the Palestine Exploration Fund offers grants for travel and research related to topics connected with its founding aims. "to promote research into the archaeology and history, manners and customs and culture, topography, geology and natural sciences of biblical Palestine and the Levant" The committee welcomes interdisciplinary applications relating to the fund's aims, as well as those relating to

1395-443: Is one woman employed to work on an excavation with Bliss, at Tell el-Hesi . He first writes about her in 1891, noting that she is a capital worker though "a bolder, wilder girl I never saw". He describes her capacity to run all over the site and clear the trenches for excavation with wonder, also commenting on her good looks and marriage prospects. He writes about her cousin, Rizq, as well, and her abilities to haul earth. Bliss provided

1488-602: Is the land from which comes news of our Redemption. It is the land towards which we turn as the fountain of all our hopes; it is the land to which we may look with as true a patriotism as we do in this dear old England, which we love so much." Speech at the first meeting of the PEF: William Thomson , the Archbishop of York and first President of the PEF Following the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem ,

1581-631: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War , the village was occupied by Egyptian troops, before being evicted by the Har'el Brigade in Operation Ha-Har . The large campus is in the possession of the Society of St Francis de Sales (Salesians of Don Bosco), who have a monastery. Besides this, there are two other monasteries, one for men (since 2000) and one for women (since 1987), belonging to the Monastic Family of Bethlehem, of

1674-625: The Arab States of the Persian Gulf became de facto British protectorates, with some internal autonomy. The Russians, British, Italians, French, Greeks , Assyrians and Armenians all made claims to Anatolia , based on a collection of wartime promises, military actions, secret agreements, and treaties. According to the Treaty of Sèvres, all but the Assyrians would have had their wishes honoured. Armenia

1767-582: The Arabian Peninsula became the Kingdom of Hejaz , which the Sultanate of Nejd (today Saudi Arabia ) was allowed to annex, and the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen . The Empire's possessions on the western shores of the Persian Gulf were variously annexed by Saudi Arabia ( al-Ahsa and Qatif ), or remained British protectorates ( Kuwait , Bahrain , and Qatar ) and became the Arab States of

1860-717: The Armenian Diaspora argued Armenia had "the ability to control the region", based on the Armenian control established after the Russian Revolution. The Armenians argued that the dominant population of the region was becoming more Armenian as Turkish inhabitants were moving to the western provinces. Boghos Nubar , the president of the Armenian National Delegation, added: "In the Caucasus, where, without mentioning

1953-553: The Biblical archaeologists and clergymen who supported the survey financed the creation of the fund. It was founded on 22 June 1865 with initial funding of £300. The most notable of the founders were Arthur P. Stanley , the Dean of Westminster , and George Grove , who later founded the Royal College of Music and was responsible for Grove's Dictionary of Music . Its founders established

SECTION 20

#1732855502372

2046-613: The Democratic Republic of Armenia should expand into present-day eastern Turkey. After the fall of the Russian Empire, Georgia became an independent republic and sought to maintain control of Batumi as well as Ardahan , Artvin , and Oltu , the areas with Muslim Georgian elements, which had been acquired by Russia from the Ottomans in 1878. The Ottoman forces occupied the disputed territories by June 1918, forcing Georgia to sign

2139-512: The Earl of Shaftesbury , a prominent social reformer, told the Annual General Meeting of the PEF that "We have there a land teeming with fertility and rich in history, but almost without an inhabitant – a country without a people, and look! scattered over the world, a people without a country." It was one of the earliest usages by a prominent politician of the phrase " A land without a people for

2232-586: The Grand National Assembly of Turkey signed and ratified the new Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, superseding the Treaty of Sèvres and agreeing on most of the territorial issues. One unresolved issue , the dispute between the Kingdom of Iraq and the Republic of Turkey over the former province of Mosul , was later negotiated under the auspices of the League of Nations in 1926. The British and French partitioned

2325-573: The Levantine landmass (mandated by the League of Nations ) to create a "haven" for the Maronite Christian population. Maronites gained self-rule and secured their position in independent Lebanon in 1943. French intervention on behalf of the Maronites had begun with the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire , agreements made during the 16th to the 19th centuries. In 1866, when Youssef Bey Karam led

2418-575: The Marylebone section of the City of Westminster , London, but in early 2019, the PEF moved to 5-6 Dreadnought Walk, Greenwich , London. Chief Executive and Curator of the PEF, Felicity Cobbing, told The Jordan Times that the Ottoman's Palestine region included historical Palestine, Jordan, southern Syria, Lebanon, the Sinai Peninsula and the island of Cyprus. The PEF's "goal was – and remains – to study

2511-461: The PEF Survey of Palestine . Its remit was considered to fall between an expeditionary survey and military intelligence gathering. There was also strong religious interest from Christians; William Thomson , Archbishop of York, was the first president of the PEF. As a result, the PEF had a complex relationship with Corps of Royal Engineers of the War Department. The PEF members sent back reports to

2604-628: The Salesians founded by Don Bosco at Turin. In 1899, there were about 30 orphans housed at the Beit Jimal Orphanage, along with nuns and brothers of the society. After the war's end, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned and Mandatory Palestine was accorded to the United Kingdom by the League of Nations . In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Bait Jamal had

2697-833: The San Remo conference , in Italy, the League of Nations mandate over Palestine was assigned to Britain. In 1923 Britain transferred a part of the Golan Heights to the French Mandate of Syria , in exchange for the Metula region. When the Ottomans departed, the Arabs proclaimed an independent state in Damascus , but were too weak, militarily and economically, to resist the European powers for long, and Britain and France soon re-established control. During

2790-551: The Treaty of Batum . After the demise of the Ottoman power, Georgia regained Ardahan and Artvin from local Muslim militias in 1919 and Batum from the British administration of that maritime city in 1920. It claimed but never attempted to control Oltu, which was also contested by Armenia. Soviet Russia and Turkey launched a near-simultaneous attack on Georgia in February–March 1921, leading to new territorial rearrangements finalized in

2883-556: The Treaty of Kars , by which Batumi remained within the borders of now- Soviet Georgia , while Ardahan and Artvin were recognized as parts of Turkey. Between 1918 and 1923, Turkish resistance movements led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk forced the Greeks, Armenians, and Italy out of Anatolia. The Turkish revolutionaries also suppressed Kurdish attempts to become independent in the 1920s. After the Turkish resistance gained control over Anatolia, there

Beit Jimal - Misplaced Pages Continue

2976-631: The region of Syria between them in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Other secret agreements were concluded with Italy and Russia. The international Zionist movement, after their successful lobbying for the Balfour Declaration , encouraged the push for a Jewish homeland in Palestine . While a part of the Triple Entente , Russia also had wartime agreements preventing it from participating in

3069-555: The 150,000 Armenians in the Imperial Russian Army, more than 40,000 of their volunteers contributed to the liberation of a portion of the Armenian vilayets, and where, under the command of their leaders, Antranik and Nazerbekoff, they, alone among the peoples of the Caucasus, offered resistance to the Turkish armies, from the beginning of the Bolshevist withdrawal right up to the signing of an armistice." President Wilson accepted

3162-677: The 1917 Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne between France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, Italy was to receive all southwestern Anatolia except the Adana region, including İzmir . However, in 1919 the Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos obtained the permission of the Paris Peace Conference to occupy İzmir , overriding the provisions of the agreement. Under the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement of 1916,

3255-520: The 1920s and 1930s Iraq, Syria and Egypt moved towards independence, although the British and French did not formally depart the region until after World War II. But in Palestine, the conflicting forces of Arab nationalism and Zionism created a situation from which the British could neither resolve nor extricate themselves. The rise to power of Nazism in Germany created a new urgency in the Zionist quest to create

3348-427: The Archbishop of York, publicly read the original prospectus at this meeting; [O]ur object is strictly an inductive inquiry. We are not to be a religious society; we are not about to launch controversy; we are about to apply the rules of science, which are so well understood by us in our branches, to an investigation into the facts concerning the Holy Land. "No country should be of so much interest to us as that in which

3441-411: The Armenian arguments for drawing the frontier and wrote: "The world expects of them (the Armenians), that they give every encouragement and help within their power to those Turkish refugees who may desire to return to their former homes in the districts of Trebizond , Erzerum , Van , and Bitlis remembering that these peoples, too, have suffered greatly." The conference agreed with his suggestion that

3534-402: The Armenian public for the Russian Revolution . The revolution effectively ended the Russian plans. The British seeking control over the straits of Marmara led to the Occupation of Constantinople , with French and Italian assistance, from 13 November 1918 to 23 September 1923. After the Turkish War of Independence and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, the troops left the city. Under

3627-421: The Armenian republic to an area of only 11,000 km . At the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 , the Armenian Diaspora and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation argued that Historical Armenia, the region which had remained outside the control of the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1918, should be part of the Democratic Republic of Armenia . Arguing from the principles in Woodrow Wilson's " Fourteen Points " speech,

3720-407: The Armenian revolutionaries in 1917 to gain the support of the Armenian public. In the meantime, the provisional government was becoming more stable as more Armenians were moving into its territory. In 1917, 150,000 Armenians relocated to the provinces of Erzurum , Bitlis , Muş , and Van . Armen Garo (known as Karekin Pastirmaciyan) and other Armenian leaders asked for the Armenian regulars in

3813-401: The Assumption of the Virgin and of Saint Bruno (or simply Monks and Sisters of Bethlehem). The nuns do not belong to Salesian Sisters who left the place in 1985. These monks and nuns spend time in silence, prayer and work. Next to the Salesian house there is also a small and well-appointed church, called St. Stephen , built in 1930 on the ruins of a 5th-century Byzantine church discovered on

Beit Jimal - Misplaced Pages Continue

3906-400: The British Museum Department of Middle East, the Palestine Exploration Fund hosts free lectures that reflect the diverse interests of their membership. The PEF also co-ordinates joint lectures with the Council for British Research in the Levant, the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, the Society for Arabian Studies, and the Egypt Exploration Society. Once a year, an Annual General Meeting (AGM)

3999-463: The Bulgarian army on the border. That same year, İzmir was promised to Italy under the Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne between France, Italy and the United Kingdom. At the 1918 Paris Peace Conference, based on the wartime promises, Venizélos lobbied hard for an expanded Hellas (the Megali Idea ) that would include the small Greek-speaking community in far Southern Albania, the Orthodox Greek-speaking community in Thrace (including Constantinople) and

4092-441: The Camel" or "Village of the Recompense", and purportedly so named for Gamaliel , president of the ancient Jewish legislative body, the Sanhedrin . The Christian tradition believes that Gamaliel was buried here, as was Saint Stephen , the first Christian martyr, and Nicodemus . In 415 their remains were disclosed in a dream and discovered by the priest Lucian, and removed at the orders of John, Bishop of Jerusalem, for depositing in

4185-410: The Church of Hagia Sion on Mount Zion , at the site of today's Abbey of the Dormition . Thanks to the excavations carried out by Andrzej Strus on site, it is now largely accepted that in Byzantine times this was considered to be the burial site of St Stephen, Gamaliel, Nicodemus and Gamaliel's son Abibos. In 2003, near a circular structure uncovered by Strus, was found a stone architrave or lintel with

4278-407: The Cremisan monastery winery just south of Jerusalem. The monastery has a small shop that offers its locally made olive oil and red wines. An alternative suggests that the cave site may have contained a mikveh belonging to a wealthy Jewish family. The name Beit Jamal appears to preserve the toponym Kfar Gamala (Gamala Village), which in turn suggests a link to rabbi Gamaliel. The agricultural school

4371-417: The European theatre to be transferred to the Caucasian front. The Russian revolution left the front in eastern Turkey in a state of flux. In December 1917, a truce was signed by representatives of the Ottoman Empire and the Transcaucasian Commissariat . However, the Ottoman Empire began to reinforce its Third Army on the eastern front. Fighting began in mid-February 1918. Armenians, under heavy pressure from

4464-496: The French obtained Hatay , Lebanon and Syria and expressed a desire for the part of South-Eastern Anatolia. The 1917 Agreement of St. Jean-de-Maurienne between France, Italy and the United Kingdom allotted France the Adana region. The French army, along with the British, occupied parts of Anatolia from 1919 to 1921 in the Franco-Turkish War , including coal mines, railways, the Black Sea ports of Zonguldak , Karadeniz Ereğli and Constantinople, Uzunköprü in Eastern Thrace and

4557-411: The Fund to carry baskets of soil from the excavations to the dump. These women also cut back brush and dug. The majority of these women remain nameless, as they were hired to perform hard labour on behalf of the trained archaeologists. Bliss took an active interest in the lives of his workers—though not necessarily in their well-being—recording a few names and stories. In his diary, Bliss wrote that most of

4650-455: The Middle East, thus necessitating the role of Western colonial powers (at that time Britain, France and Italy) as peace brokers and arms suppliers. The League of Nations mandate granted the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon , the British Mandate for Mesopotamia (later Iraq ) and the British Mandate for Palestine , later divided into Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan (1921–1946). The Ottoman Empire's possessions in

4743-770: The Orthodox community in Asia Minor. In 1919, despite Italian opposition, he obtained the permission of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 for Greece to occupy İzmir. The South West Caucasian Republic was an entity established on Russian territory in 1918, after the withdrawal of Ottoman troops to the pre-World War I border as a result of the Armistice of Mudros . It had a nominally independent provisional government headed by Fakhr al-Din Pirioghlu and based in Kars . After fighting broke out between it and both Georgia and Armenia, British High Commissioner Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe occupied Kars on 19 April 1919, abolishing its parliament and arresting 30 members of its government. He placed Kars province under Armenian rule. In

SECTION 50

#1732855502372

4836-404: The Ottoman Empire was divided into several new states . The Ottoman Empire had been the leading Islamic state in geopolitical , cultural , and ideological terms. The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after the war led to the domination of the Middle East by Western powers such as Britain and France, and saw the creation of the modern Arab world and the Republic of Turkey . Resistance to

4929-438: The Ottoman army and Kurdish irregulars, were forced to withdraw from Erzincan to Erzurum and then to Kars , eventually evacuating even Kars on 25 April. As a response to the Ottoman advances, the Transcaucasian Commissariat evolved into the short-lived Transcaucasian Federation ; its disintegration resulted in Armenians forming the Democratic Republic of Armenia on 30 May 1918. The Treaty of Batum , signed on 4 June, reduced

5022-465: The PEF's archival collections. The PEF grants are open to all members of the PEF or someone who is becoming a member. The PEF's offices also house collections of photographs, maps, specimens, manuscripts, and paintings. At their location in London, there are collections over 6,000 artefacts that range in date from 40,000 B.C. to the 19th century. The archives contain over 40,000 photographs of Palestine , Jordan , and Syria . Objects come from sites in

5115-422: The Persian Gulf . After the Ottoman government collapsed completely, its representatives signed the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, which would have partitioned much of the territory of present-day Turkey among France, the United Kingdom, Greece and Italy. The Turkish War of Independence forced the Western European powers to return to the negotiating table before the treaty could be ratified. The Western Europeans and

5208-429: The South Levant, in particular from Jerusalem, Tell el Hesi, and Samaria. The material comes almost exclusively from PEF excavations carried out between the 1860s to the 1930s. Items on display include artefacts from excavations by Charles Warren , Sir William Flinders Petrie , Frederick Jones Bliss , and John Crowfoot . The PEF also has a collection of casts from original items that now reside in different areas around

5301-427: The Soviet Union. This border was ratified again with the Treaty of Moscow (1921) , in which the Bolsheviks ceded the already Turkish-occupied provinces of Kars , Iğdır , Ardahan , and Artvin to Turkey in exchange for the Adjara region with its capital city of Batumi . Turkey and the newly formed Soviet Union, along with the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic , ratified

5394-410: The UK on the need to salvage and modernise the Levant region. "This country of Palestine belongs to you and me, it is essentially ours. It was given to the Father of Israel in the words: "Walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee". We mean to walk through Palestine in the length and in the breadth of it, because that land has been given unto us. It

5487-456: The accumulation of rubbish and ruins on which those villages stand ... The PEF conducted many early excavations of biblical and post-biblical sites around the Levant , as well as studies involving natural history, anthropology, history and geography. In 1867, Charles Warren led PEF's biggest expedition. Warren and his team improved the topography of Jerusalem and discovered the ancient water systems that lay beneath this city. The water system

5580-426: The ancient Kfar Gamla, the traditional burial site of Saint Stephen. In 2017, extensive remains of a sixth-century Byzantine monastery were excavated; finds included a large mosaic featuring birds, foliage and pomegranates. Beit Jimal, like the rest of Palestine , was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the tax registers of 1596, it was a village in the nahiya of Gaza, Sanjak of Gaza , with

5673-426: The benefit of underprivileged youth, especially orphans in 1873. By 1881, a Latin Convent was being built there, known as the Latin Hospice and Orphanage. The land was purchased by the Marquis of Bute , and given by him to Don Belloni for the construction of an Agricultural School, similar to the one established by him in Bethlehem. In 1892, Don Belloni transferred the Orphanage and School to a religious society known as

SECTION 60

#1732855502372

5766-471: The country, its people and its natural, ancient and cultural heritage," she added. The new Greenwich headquarters provides more space for PEF collections and its specialist library. "Now we can welcome many more scholars and we can look forward to developing collaborative projects with other institutions both in the UK and internationally," Cobbing said. The PEF holds regular events and lectures and provides annual grants for various projects. In partnership with

5859-467: The country. During the Great War, Britain produced three contrasting, but feasibly compatible, statements regarding their ambitions for Palestine. Britain had supported, through British intelligence officer T. E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia), the establishment of a united Arab state covering a large area of the Arab Middle East in exchange for Arab support of the British during the war. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 encouraged Jewish ambitions for

5952-405: The different types of stonework he encountered at different levels and other features, such as Robinson's Arch on the western side and the Herodian street below it. ... in 1884 the PEF published a large portfolio of 50 of Warren's maps, plans and drawings titled Plans, Elevations, Sections, etc., Shewing the Results of the Excavations at Jerusalem, 1867–70 (now known as the 'Warren Atlas')." In 1875,

6045-414: 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

6138-493: The excavations of Flinders Petrie and Frederick Jones Bliss at Tell el Hesi (1890–1892), the excavations of R.A.S. Macalister at Gezer (1902–06), Duncan Mackenzie 's excavations at Ain Shems-Beth Shemesh in 1910–1912, C. L. Woolley and T. E. Lawrence on the Wilderness of Zin Survey (1913–14), and many others. In addition to these items, the PEF also maintains a collection of photographs of expeditions, coins, natural history, models, and historic forgeries. The PEF also houses

6231-457: The following activities have been reported: The Palestine Exploration Fund was also involved in the foundation of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem in 1919. The School worked with the Fund in joint excavations at Jerusalem's Ophel in the 1920s. The school's second director, John Winter Crowfoot , was Chairman of the PEF from 1945 to 1950. Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women were frequently employed by

6324-410: The former Ottoman province of Mosul in the 1920s. Under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne Mosul fell under the British Mandate of Mesopotamia , but the new Turkish republic claimed the province as part of its historic heartland. A three-person League of Nations committee went to the region in 1924 to study the case. In 1925 they recommended the region remain connected to Iraq, and that the UK should hold

6417-467: The fund "for the purpose of investigating the Archaeology, Geography, manners, customs and culture, Geology and Natural History of the Holy Land ". The roots of the Palestine Exploration Fund lie in a literary society founded by British Consul James Finn and his wife Elizabeth Anne Finn . Many photographs of Palestine have survived from this period. Frederick J. Bliss wrote of the foundation that "[a]s far as its aims were concerned this organization

6510-498: The fund are summarised in PEF (1886). Its chapters and persons mentioned include the following: In his opening address ( p.8 ), Archbishop Thomson laid down three basic principles for the Society: Regarding the latter, great emphasis was placed upon the nomenclature "Holy Land", so the notion of religion could never have been far away. Also ( p.10 ) stress was laid upon the fact that "The Society numbers among its supporters Christians and Jews". (Muslims were not mentioned.) Elsewhere

6603-412: The influence of these powers came from the Turkish National Movement but did not become widespread in the other post-Ottoman states until the period of rapid decolonization after World War II . The sometimes-violent creation of protectorates in Iraq and Palestine , and the proposed division of Syria along communal lines, is thought to have been a part of the larger strategy of ensuring tension in

6696-485: The inhabitants suffered from fevers. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Bayt Jimal had a population of 21, with a total of 8 houses, though the population count included men, only. The Palestine Exploration Fund 's Survey of Western Palestine described Beit Jimal in the 1870s as a small village. The Land was purchased in 1869 by Fr. Antonio Belloni, who set up the Beit Gemal School of Agriculture for

6789-476: The islands of Imbros ( Gökçeada ) and Tenedos ( Bozcaada ), and parts of western Anatolia around the city of İzmir. In May 1917, after the exile of Constantine I of Greece , Greek prime minister Eleuthérios Venizélos returned to Athens and allied with the Entente. Greek military forces (though divided between supporters of the monarchy and supporters of Venizélos) began to take part in military operations against

6882-575: The later years of World War I, the Armenians in Russia established a provisional government in the south-west of the Russian Empire. Military conflicts between the Turks and Armenians both during and after the war eventually determined the borders of the state of Armenia . In April 1915, Russia supported the establishment of the Armenian provisional government under Russian-Armenian Governor Aram Manukian , leader of

6975-555: The mandate for another 25 years, to assure the autonomous rights of the Kurdish population. Turkey rejected this decision. Britain, Iraq and Turkey made a treaty on 5 June 1926, that mostly followed the decision of the League Council. Mosul stayed under British Mandate of Mesopotamia until Iraq was granted independence in 1932 by the urging of King Faisal , though the British retained military bases and transit rights for their forces in

7068-467: The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after the Russian Revolution . The Treaty of Sèvres formally acknowledged the new League of Nations mandates in the region, the independence of Yemen , and British sovereignty over Cyprus . The Western powers had long believed that they would eventually become dominant in the area claimed by the weak central government of the Ottoman Empire. Britain anticipated

7161-513: The region of Cilicia . France eventually withdrew from all these areas, after the Armistice of Mudanya , the Treaty of Ankara and the Treaty of Lausanne. The western Allies, particularly British Prime Minister David Lloyd George , promised Greece territorial gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire if Greece entered the war on the Allied side. The promised territories included eastern Thrace ,

7254-631: The resistance in the Defense of Van . The Armenian national liberation movement hoped that Armenia could be liberated from the Ottoman regime in exchange for helping the Russian army. However, the Tsarist regime had a secret wartime agreement with the other members of the Triple Entente about the eventual fate of several Anatolian territories, named the Sykes–Picot Agreement . These plans were made public by

7347-520: The site discovered in 1916, during works to enlarge the monastery garden. The mosaics on the external walls are those excavated from the Byzantine church. Tradition holds that St. Stephen was buried by Gamaliel in his own private tomb in Caphargamala. Fine mosaics from the period were also brought to light. The monastery produces and markets its own honey, olive oil and wine, the last of which is processed at

7440-757: The western shore of the Bosporus , Sea of Marmara , and Dardanelles , as well as southern Thrace up to the Enos-Media line", and "a part of the Asiatic coast between the Bosporus, the Sakarya River , and a point to be determined on the shore of the Bay of İzmit ." The Constantinople Agreement was made public by the Russian newspaper Izvestiya in November 1917, to gain the support of

7533-537: The workers were from Bureir , a village six miles away from the Tell. Most of the men slept at camp, "digging little shallow graves for a bed", but "the women and girls had the long walk both before and after work. Six miles' walk before 6.30a.m., and six miles' walk after 5p.m., with a hard day's work of carrying earth-piled baskets on the head in between". He comments that this does not seem like an easy life, but more women and girls applied for work than he could employ. Heuda

7626-579: The world. Also at the PEF is an archive of maps that is composed mainly of documents, letters, reports, plans and maps compiled by the explorers and scholars who worked for the PEF. These explorers include Charles Warren in Jerusalem and Palestine (1867–1870), Claude Conder and Horatio Kitchener on the Survey of Western Palestine (1872–1878), the Survey of Eastern Palestine (1880–81) and the Wady Arabah (1883–4),

7719-591: Was a geopolitical event that occurred after World War I and the occupation of Constantinople by British , French , and Italian troops in November 1918. The partitioning was planned in several agreements made by the Allied Powers early in the course of World War I , notably the Sykes–Picot Agreement , after the Ottoman Empire had joined Germany to form the Ottoman–German alliance . The huge conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised

7812-523: Was administered by the British for the remainder of the war. The United Kingdom was granted control of Palestine by the Versailles Peace Conference which established the League of Nations in 1919. Herbert Samuel , a former Postmaster General in the British cabinet who was instrumental in drafting the Balfour Declaration , was appointed the first High Commissioner in Palestine. In 1920 at

7905-599: Was but a re-institution of a Society formed about the year 1804 under the name of the Palestine Association ... it is interesting to note that the General Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund recognized an organic connection with the earlier Society." The preliminary meeting of the Society of the Palestine Exploration Fund took place in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey . William Thomson ,

7998-526: Was closed by authorities in 1967. A statue erected in 2000 commemorating Saint Stephen's martyrdom is the work of Israeli artist Igael Tumarkin . There is a small concert hall, where concerts are played on some weekends. On February 23, 2010, Neta Sorek an Israeli woman from Zikhron Ya'akov was murdered while walking alone in Beit Jimal Monastery gardens by members of a Palestinian terrorist cell who illegally infiltrated into Israel from Surif ,

8091-482: Was later named Warren's Shaft , after his work. They also made the first excavations of Tell es-Sultan , site of the biblical city of Jericho . A 2013 publication, The Walls of the Temple Mount , provides more specifics about Warren's work, as summarized in a book review: "... he concentrated on excavating shafts down beneath the ground to the level of the lower parts of the external Temple Mount walls, recording

8184-570: Was met immediately with armed resistance, and, to combat Arab nationalism , France divided the Mandate area into Lebanon and four sub-states. Compared to the mandate of Lebanon, the situation in Syria was more chaotic. The Entities stated are the ones that are united. Greater Lebanon was the name of a territory created by France. It was the precursor of modern Lebanon . It existed between 1 September 1920 and 23 May 1926. France carved its territory from

8277-459: Was no hope of meeting the conditions of the Treaty of Sèvres . Before joining the Soviet Union , the Democratic Republic of Armenia signed the Treaty of Alexandropol , on 3 December 1920, agreeing to the current border between the two countries, though the Armenian government had already collapsed due to a concurrent Soviet invasion on 2 December. Afterwards Armenia became an integral part of

8370-610: Was placed under direct British administration, and the Jewish population was allowed to increase, initially under British protection. Most of the Arabian peninsula fell to another British ally, Ibn Saud , who created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. Mosul was allocated to France under the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement and was subsequently given to Britain under the 1918 Clemenceau–Lloyd George Agreement . Great Britain and Turkey disputed control of

8463-606: Was the Arab village, Bayt Nattif . The monastery is located in the Judaean Mountains next to the city of Beit Shemesh . Ancient cisterns have been found here. In Arabic and Hebrew the site is now known as Beit Jimal – the monastery is sometimes referenced as Beit Gemal or Beit Jimal . The name of the site is said to be from its original name (in years past) as the Jewish village of Kfar Gamla ( כפר גמלא ‎), meaning "Village of

8556-516: Was to be given a significant portion of the east, known as Wilsonian Armenia , extending as far down as the Lake Van area and as far west as Mush . Greece was to be given Smyrna and the area around it, and likely would have gained Constantinople and all of Thrace , which was administered as internationally controlled and demilitarized territory. Italy was to be given control over the south-central and western coast of Anatolia around Antalya . France

8649-436: Was to be given the area of Cilicia . Britain was to be given all the area south of Armenia. The Treaty of Lausanne, by contrast, forfeited all arrangements and territorial annexations. In March 1915, Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire, Sergey Sazonov , told British and French Ambassadors George Buchanan and Maurice Paléologue that a lasting postwar settlement demanded Russian possession of "the city of Constantinople ,

#371628