Palestine Exploration Quarterly

Palestine Exploration Quarterly
Title	Palestine Exploration Quarterly
Discipline	Archaeology; History; Biblical Studies
Abbreviation	PEQ
Publisher	Palestine Exploration Fund
Country	United Kingdom
History	1869–present
Frequency	Quarterly
Issn	0031-0304

Palestine Exploration Quarterly is a peer-reviewed periodical published by the Palestine Exploration Fund that documents archaeological, historical, topographical, and ethnographic research related to the Levant. It has featured contributions from explorers, archaeologists, historians, and biblical scholars and has played a role in debates involving the archaeology of Jerusalem, the archaeology of the Levant, and colonial-era exploration. The journal has engaged with work connected to excavations, surveys, cartography, philology, and numismatics across the region.

History

Founded in the late Victorian era under the aegis of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the journal emerged amid contemporary enterprises such as the Royal Geographical Society, the British Museum, and the Society of Antiquaries of London. Early volumes recorded fieldwork by figures associated with the Survey of Western Palestine and expeditions similar in context to those led by explorers who worked with institutions like the British Academy and the Royal Asiatic Society. Contributors and correspondents included agents and scholars whose activities intersect with landmark endeavors such as the digs at Megiddo, Tell es-Sultan, and the work of field teams comparable to those at Lachish and Gezer. Throughout its run the journal has reflected shifting intellectual currents influenced by scholars connected to universities including Oxford, Cambridge, the German Orientwissenschaft community, and later American institutions such as Harvard and the Oriental Institute of Chicago.

Scope and content

The journal covers archaeology, epigraphy, cartography, historical geography, and textual studies relevant to locations like Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem, Jericho, Samaria, Galilee, and the Negev. Articles interface with finds and sites associated with figures and contexts such as Herod, Nebuchadnezzar, Saladin, the Crusader states, the Ottoman administration, British Mandate authorities, and modern states and agencies including the Israel Antiquities Authority and UNESCO. It publishes excavation reports similar in nature to those from Tell el-Far'ah, Beit She'an, and Sidon, analyses of inscriptions akin to those found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, numismatic studies referencing coinages of Antiochus, Ptolemy, and Herodian mints, and cartographic work comparable to the Survey of Egypt. The journal also presents travel narratives, ethnographic observations like those by 19th-century travelers, and historiographical essays engaging with texts such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and medieval chronicles.

Publication and editorial information

Published quarterly by the Palestine Exploration Fund, the periodical has been edited by officers and scholars affiliated with learned bodies such as the Society of Biblical Archaeology, the Royal Society, and university departments at institutions like University College London and the University of Cambridge. Editorial boards have included specialists in fields represented by the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, the École Biblique, and the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. The journal adheres to peer review practices found across journals published by presses such as Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, and its production has involved partnerships with printers and distributors operating in London, Edinburgh, and continental European publishing centers.

Notable articles and contributors

Notable contributors have included explorers and scholars whose careers intersect with institutions like the Palestine Exploration Fund, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the American Schools of Oriental Research, and the École Biblique. Individual names associated historically with the region’s scholarship mirror figures who participated in excavations at sites such as Megiddo, Jericho, and Lachish, engaged in debates akin to those involving William F. Albright, Kathleen Kenyon, Flinders Petrie, Leonard Woolley, and Yigael Yadin, and produced writings comparable to work published in journals like Antiquity, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and the Journal of Biblical Literature. The journal has printed primary-site reports, photographic documentation, plans and sections, palaeographic studies reminiscent of analyses of paleo-Hebrew, and syntheses of ceramic typologies like those used at Tell Beit Mirsim and Tell Dan.

Reception and impact

The periodical has been cited and critiqued across disciplines represented by universities, museums, and research institutions. It has informed public presentations at lecture venues such as the Royal Geographical Society and influenced museum exhibitions at institutions comparable to the British Museum and the Israel Museum. Debates about interpretation of archaeological evidence published in the journal have intersected with controversies echoing disputes over stratigraphy at Jericho, chronology debates involving the Late Bronze Age collapse, and historiographical arguments paralleling those about the historicity of biblical narratives. Scholarly reactions range from use as primary-source reportage by field archaeologists to critical reassessment by historians and postcolonial scholars examining the journal’s role within imperial-era scholarship.

Indexing and availability

Volumes are indexed in bibliographic services and catalogues maintained by national libraries such as the British Library and the Library of Congress, and appear in subject indexes used by institutions including the Institute for the Study of the Ancient Near East and research tools akin to JSTOR and WorldCat. Back runs and individual articles are held in university libraries at institutions like the University of Oxford, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Chicago, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, and are cited in bibliographies compiled by projects associated with the American Schools of Oriental Research, the European Association of Archaeologists, and specialized corpora of inscriptions and coins.

Category:Archaeology journals Category:Publications established in 1869 Category:British journals Category:Middle Eastern studies journals