Frederick Jones Bliss (22 January 1859-–3 June 1937) was an American archaeologist.

Biography

He was born in Mount Lebanon, Syria on 22 January 1859. His father,

Daniel Bliss Daniel Bliss (August 17, 1823 in Georgia, Vermont, United States – July 27, 1916 in Beirut, Lebanon) was a Christian missionary from the United States and the founder of the American University of Beirut. Life and work Born in the town of Geo ...

, was first a Congregational missionary and later president of the Syrian Protestant College, the future American University of Beirut. Frederick J. graduated from Amherst College (1880) and then taught at the Syrian Protestant College, thereafter attending Union Theological Seminary. After training under

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egyp ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, Bliss became involved with the Palestine Exploration Fund working in the field of

Biblical archaeology Biblical archaeology is an academic school and a subset of Biblical studies and Levantine archaeology. Biblical archaeology studies archaeological sites from the Ancient Near East and especially the Holy Land (also known as Palestine, Land o ...

at the site of

Tell el-Hesi Tell el-Hesi ( he, תל חסי), or Tell el-Hesy, is a 25-acre archaeological site in Israel. It was the first major site excavated in Palestine, first by Flinders Petrie in 1890 and later by Frederick Jones Bliss in 1891 and 1892, both sponsored ...

between 1894 and 1897, while concurrently leading an expedition that dug in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, where he collaborated with A. C. Dickie. Between 1898 and 1900, along with R.A.S. Macalister, Bliss excavated several sites in the

Shephelah The Shephelah or Shfela, lit. "lowlands" ( hbo, הַשְּפֵלָה ''hašŠǝfēlā'', also Modern Hebrew: , ''Šǝfēlat Yəhūda'', the "Judaean foothills"), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel str ...

region of modern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, helping to improve the

chronology Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , ''-logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. I ...

of the region. His excavation reports appeared frequently in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and included the first jar handle stamped by one of the

Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after Eas ...

LMLK seals (in 1899 simultaneously the first one with a 4-winged icon) as well as the first complete

MMST MMST (Hebrew: ''MMŠT'') is a word written in Paleo-Hebrew abjad script. It appears exclusively on LMLK seal inscriptions, seen in archaeological findings from the ancient Kingdom of Judah, whose meaning has been the subject of continual controv ...

inscription (in 1900). He was dismissed as the head of the Fund in 1900 due to a disagreement with his peers over the handling of artefacts retrieved from archaeological digs and their transferal to

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

at the behest of the Ottoman authority.Beatrice St. Laurent
The Imperial Museum of Antiquities in Jerusalem, 1890–1930 - An Alternate Narrative
''

Jewish Quarterly 'The Jewish Quarterly' is an international journal of Jewish culture and ideas. Primarily a UK-based publication until 2021, the journal is now published by Australian publisher, Morry Schwartz, for a global audience. With four issues released a y ...

'' 55, pp. 19–20 After the publication of his and Macalister's ''Excavations in Palestine'' in 1902, he was not active in the field.

Bibliography

References

External links

Frederick J. Bliss in The Palestine Exploration Fund
1857 births 1939 deaths American archaeologists American expatriates in the Ottoman Empire {{US-archaeologist-stub