CBRL History

The Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) is the British Academy sponsored Institute for research into the humanities and social sciences in the Levant (the modern countries of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Syria), closely related to the former Bilad el Sham.

The CBRL was established in 1998, and was in part the amalgamation of two bodies, the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ) and the British Institute in Amman for Archaeology and History (BIAAH).

The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem was founded in 1919 by Professor John Garstang as a centre for British fieldwork in Palestine and as a staff training institute for the Antiquities Service of the British Mandate administration. In 1952, Kathleen Kenyon re-established the School after the hiatus of World War II, and directed major excavations at Jericho and Jerusalem. The School had always sponsored projects elsewhere in the region, and this became impossible after the 1967 war.

In 1968 two truckloads of excavation and kitchen equipment were moved from the BSAJ East of the Jordan Valley for the use of School members operating out of Amman. Crystal Bennett first took a room in the Philadelphia Hotel and then a flat from 1970 as an office and base for British excavations in Jordan. In 1971 lectures were first given in Amman, and in 1978 the British Academy formally notified the BSAJ that it was giving a grant to a new and separate body. In 1998, following a review by the British Academy and in the then optimistic spirit of the peace process, it was decided to merge the two bodies into one. This merger process recognised that the situation on the ground is not simple, and the CBRL therefore has its regional headquarters in Amman and premises in the old BSAJ building in Jerusalem.

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In 2003 these were launched as the British Institute (in Amman) and the Kenyon Institute (in Jerusalem) in honour of one of the major figures of our past. Each building contains administrative offices, research labs, accommodation, equipment, and libraries. The libraries can be accessed through a shared catalogue but each has a distinctive collection policy. The UK offices are now based in the British Academy in London.

This history of the old institutions is only part of the story. Both the BSAJ and BIAAH were dominated by archaeological and related research, and were very much focused on the southern Levant. The CBRL has a much wider brief, sponsoring research from the humanities and social sciences, and covering the whole of the Levant. Our peer reviewed journal, Levant, remains very much an archaeological journal for the region and many of our current membership are still archaeologists, but most of our staff now come from other disciplines, and the research we support is very diverse and geographically spread.

We support research through the facilities in our research centres in Amman and Jerusalem, and at field bases in Homs in Syria and Wadi Raynan in southern Jordan, through the provision of travel grants, funding towards key strategic research, the employment of research active staff, and fellowship schemes. CBRL office also provide important links between the local academic communities and counterparts in the UK, and assists UK researchers in discussions with government agencies.

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