John Garstang

John Garstang (May 5, 1876–September 12, 1956, Beirut) was a British archaeologist of the ancient Near East, especially Anatolia and the southern Levant.

He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's, Blackburn; and Jesus College, Oxford. Following undergraduate studies in mathematics at Oxford, his attentions turned to archaeology.

From 1897 to 1908 he conducted excavations at Roman sites in Britain, Egypt, Nubia, Asia Minor and North Syria; in the Sudan and Meroe between 1909 and 1914, then in Palestine at Askalon (1920–1921) and at Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) in 1930–1936.

He was professor of archaeology at the University of Liverpool from 1907 to 1941.

He served as the Director of the Department of Antiquities in the British Mandate of Palestine between 1920 and 1926, as well as filling the position of Head of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (1919–1926).

Later, in 1947, Garstang founded the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, acting as its first director (he was succeeded by Seton Lloyd).

Further reading

• Albright, William Foxwell. "John Garstang in Memoriam", Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 144. (Dec., 1956), pp. 7–8.
• Garstang, John. "El Arabah: A Cemetery of the Middle Kingdom...", London, Bernard Quaritch, 1901.
• Garstang, John. "Mahasna and Bet Khallaf", London, Bernard Quaritch, 1902.
• Newberry, Percy E., Garstang, John. "A Short History of Ancient Egypt", London, Archibald Constable & Co. 1904.
• Garstang, John. "The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt as illustrated by the Tombs of the Middle Kingdom..." London, John Constable, 1907.

He taught at the Egyptology section of the Faculty of Arts when this was established in the 1920's. One of his students was Dr Pahor Labib, late Director of the Coptic Museum, Cairo (Martin Krause, Essays on the Nag Hammad Texts - In Honour of Pahor Labib, Brill, Leiden, 1975, p. 1).