Starkey, James Leslie, Zionsfriedhof Jerusalem

James Leslie Starkey (3 January 1895 – 10 January 1938) was a noted British archaeologist of the ancient Near East and

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

in the period before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He was the chief excavator of the first archaeological expedition to

Lachish Lachish ( he, לכיש; grc, Λαχίς; la, Lachis) was an ancient Canaanite and Israelite city in the Shephelah ("lowlands of Judea") region of Israel, on the South bank of the Lakhish River, mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. T ...

(Tell ed-Duweir) from 1932 to his death. Starkey was robbed and killed near

Bayt Jibrin Bayt Jibrin or Beit Jibrin ( ar, بيت جبرين; he, בית גוברין, translit=Beit Gubrin) was a Palestinian village located northwest of the city of Hebron. The village had a total land area of 56,185 dunams or , of which we ...

on a track leading from Bayt Jibrin to

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

. Issa Battat, a rebel commander from the ad-Dhahiriya area who led a rebel unit during the

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, later known as The Great Revolt (''al-Thawra al- Kubra'') or The Great Palestinian Revolt (''Thawrat Filastin al-Kubra''), was a popular nationalist uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine a ...

against the British, was held responsible by the British authorities for Starkey's killing. Battat was later killed in an ambush by British forces in May 1938. On the other hand,

Yosef Garfinkel Yosef Garfinkel (hebrew: יוסף גרפינקל; born 1956) is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology and of Archaeology of the Biblical Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Biography Yosef (Y ...

has suggested that the murder of Starkey had more to do with a dispute between the archaeologists, the government, and the Arab owners of the Lachish site. No agreement had been reached for access to the top of the mound and the government was in the process of compulsorily expropriating it. Starkey is buried in Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion,

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

Footnotes

1895 births 1938 deaths British archaeologists Terrorism victims Archaeologists of the Near East Biblical archaeologists Burials at Mount Zion (Protestant) 20th-century archaeologists Terrorism deaths in Israel 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine 1938 murders in Asia Terrorist incidents in the 1930s People murdered in Mandatory Palestine {{UK-archaeologist-stub