A couple of photos from my presentation yesterday on “Dr Albright, Fr Mallon, and the 1924 Dead Sea expedition” at the BANEA conference in London. It is part of my work in dealing with the legacy material of Pontifical Biblical Institute, Jerusalem and with the history of archaeological research relating to the Bible, and how it impacts our readings today.

[published on Instagram and Facebook 24 April 2026]

---

Abstract

Dr Albright, Fr Mallon, and the 1924 Dead Sea expedition

Early in 1924, Dr W.F. Albright of the American School of Oriental Research led an expedition to Moab and the Dead Sea, with the stated aim of locating the Cities of the Plain (especially Sodom, Gomorrah, Zoar). The expedition included partners from Xenia Seminary, the American University in Beirut, as well as Fr Alexis Mallon SJ of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem, and Eliezer Sukenik, then a doctoral student. The expedition marked the beginning of a friendship, respect, but also academic rivalry between Mallon and Albright, particularly when Mallon started digging the Chalcolithic site of Teleilat Ghassul. Despite the stated intentions, the Dead Sea expedition was never fully published. Archival research on Mallon’s photographs and notebook shed new light of the expedition, and provide for a fresh critique of this fascinating case of research that crossed international and interconfessional boundaries, in the context of the pioneering years of Biblical archaeology, entangled with the early years of British Mandate Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan.