Harris Dunscombe Colt
| Harris Dunscombe Colt | |||||||||
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| File:Colt, Harris Dunscombe.jpg | |||||||||
| Born | 1901 | ||||||||
| Died | 1973 | ||||||||
| Residence |
Royal Society Club, St James [A63] c/o Barclays Bank, 160 Piccadilly, W1 [1933] | ||||||||
| Occupation | archaeologist | ||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1931.11.24 proposed by L.S. Starkey, seconded by G.D. Hornblower
Notes From Elsewhere
In December of 1992 Mrs Armida Colt donated to the library of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London an archive of photographs, papers, offprints and pamphlets relating to the work of her late American husband, Harris Dunscombe ColtJr. (1901-73). Part of this material concerns Malta (Fig. I), in particular the archaeological activity that took place there between 1925-34 when the island's megalithic antiquities were coming to the fore as a result of unstinting work by Dr (later Sir) Themistocles Zammit, rector of the University of Malta (1920-26), curator (19°3-22) and subsequently director (1922-35) of the Valletta museum of archaeology. On being informed of the Colt archive by Mr Andrew D. Appleyard, one of us (NCV) had occasion to examine the photographic archive in the course of research conducted at the British School at Rome about the effects of colonialism on the development of prehistoric research in Malta. On the initiative of the other one of us (RLC) this material has been presented to the University of Malta Library following an official request made by Dr Anthony J. Frendo, then Head of the Department of Classics and Archaeology at the same university, to the Executive Committee of the P.E.F. As this note was being drafted to mark this important event and to throw some light on Colt's Malta connection, contact with Colt's son Harris Strickland Colt and wife Margaretta was established by one of us (NCV). This led to the discovery of more material including a photograph album which has been kindly donated to the same library.
The exclusive group of people who worked with that archaeological giant, Sir Flinders Petrie and with his formidable aide, J. L. Starkey, is a rapidly diminishing one. The death of Harris Colt, on the 8th November after an
heroic and long drawn out struggle against hopeless odds has reduced it yet again.
Mr. Colt's active interest in archaeology covered a span of fifty years, beginning in 1922 when he participated in the excavations of Roman Richborough in Kent. With his wide-ranging interests, it was inevitable that he
would be caught up in the web being spun by British archaeologists in the Middle East. The 1930's were an intense period of British participation in, perhaps even domination of: the Palestinian archaeological scene. Archaeological periods have their fashions: suddenly, for a variety of reasons, a period of pre-history or history and the area where these are to be found, become of vital interest. In the 1930's Palestine reflected this.
The activities of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt had been transferred to Palestine, the importance of which as a bridge between Egypt and Mesopotamia had been highlighted by recent discoveries in both countries.
Excavations took place at many of the big Palestinian tells: Tell Fara (Bethpelet), Tell Ajjul (Gaza), Tell Duweir (Lachish), Jericho, Samaria-Sebaste-to mention only the British undertakings. It was the south of Palestine, the arid desert area, now known as the Negev, but in ancient days as the Wilderness of Zin, which appealed to the young Harris Colt, though there is a record of him in 1933 helping the then Director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, Mr. J. W. Crowfoot with his work on the Cathedral at Bosra in the Hauran.
Mter digging with Petrie at Tell Fara' (South) and with Starkey in his first season in 1932 at Lachish, to which he also contributed in a financial manner, he formed his own Archaeological Expedition and chose his own sites. At that time other archaeologists must have thought Colt somewhat eccentric: not for him the choice of a well known massive tell, but some Byzantine ruins called S'beita in the desert south of Beersheba which has been noted by E. H. Palmer in the 1860'S and mentioned in his article" The Desert of the Tih and the Country of Moab" (PEFQS 1871, p. 30-3) and detailed plans of which had been done by C. L. Woolley and T. E. Lawrence (" The Wilderness of Zin ", PEFA.3. 1914-15, pp. 72-91, Figs. 9-22), during a survey of the area for the Palestine Exploration Fund. It could well have been these earlier records and Crowfoot's work on the Christian churches atJerash, combined with his love of the wilderness that dictated his choice of S'beita in 1933. So far as I know S'beita was never fully published though a report exists by Colin Baly, one of Colt's team, in the Palestine Exploration Fund Q,uarterlY of 1935. In 1936 he switched his attention to another forgotten city in the NegevAuja-el-Hafir which had suffered much damage under the Turks. His choice was justified completely. Here was none other than the Byzantine city of Nessana as discoveries of literary and non-literary papyri proved. The literary papyri comprised classical, New Testament and apochrypha and were published in 1950 by L. Casson and E. Hettich (Excavations at Nessana II) while the 184 non-literary documents (edited by Casper J. Kraemer) appeared in 1958. (Excavations at Nessana III) Princeton. This was a collection of Greek church records of the seventh century and a small, but important group of Arabic administrative texts dating from just after the Arab Conquest in 636. In 1962, under the imprint of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem the full report of the excavations appeared under the title Excavations at Nessana, Vol. I. It is difficult to know if the outbreak of the 1939-45 war had anything to do with Harris's decision to give up field archaeology. I think a contributory factor may have been a realization that his personality prevented him from having some of the toughness which directing excavations needs. But for him to give up archaeology completely was an impossibility. (In fact, in the 50's when Harris and I became very close friends, he admitted that the rigours of field archaeology were not for him and that he had preferred to use his talents in
other ways to help archaeology.) Thus, with his usual vision, was born his own private foundation, the Colt Archaeological Institute, and later the Colt Monograph Series, to deal with the publication of works connected with archaeology, particularly in the Levant. (The three volumes of his own excavations at Nessana were published by this Institute.) Here he came into his own: his aesthetic sense, his ideas on presentation and format, his eye for balance and insistence on making up his own plates resulted in very fine publications.
To be published by Colt was a sought after honour among archaeologists. I regret that my final reports on Umm el Biyara and Tawilan were not finished in time to be published by him before his death. Colt may have been shy and diffident, almost retiring, but he was completely cosmopolitan, equally at home on both sides of the Atlantic, with a truly global approach to life and a breadth of vision which brooked no limitations, particularly in archaeology. This was reflected in the subjects he chose for his Monograph series: R. H. Smith, Excavations in the Cemetery of Khirbet Kufin (1962); Joseph Callaway, Pottery from the Tombs at Ai (1964); C. A. Bateman, Vaughn Crawford and L. J. Majeswki, The Preservation of Clay Tablets and the Conservation of Wall Paintings (1966); J. B. Hennessy's The Foreign Relations of Palestine during the Early Bronze Age (1967); O. W. Muscarella, Phrygian Fibulae from
Gordion (1968); P. Throckmorton and others, Surveying in Archaeology-Underwater (and more); recently in 1972, a massive volume on The Early Bronze Age Sanctuary at Ai (et-Tell) (Vol. I) by Dr. J. A. Callaway. Other monographs were in preparation at the time of his death.
Among his other talents were his incisive thinking and impartiality which made him a valued member of any committee. Thus for many years he was on the board of the Archaeological Institute of America and was a Trustee of the American Schools of Oriental Research from 1955 till his death, from 1963 being the representative of the Archaeological Institute of America; he was also a member of the Amman Committee and the Finance Committee of the American Schools of Oriental Research. His six monthly visits to England enabled him to serve on the Council of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem from 1962-72. He became a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1957, an honour which gave him great pleasure. [To cite this article: C-M. Bennett (1975) Harris Dunscombe Colt (1901–1973), Levant, 7:1, iii-v,
DOI: 10.1179/lev.1975.7.1.iii
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1179/lev.1975.7.1.iii]
Publications
External Publications
The joint excavation at Tell Ajjul in Palestine by New York University and the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, during the year 1930-1931 by Harris Dunscombe Colt
House Publications
Related Material Details
RAI Material
Other Material
University of Malta Library