First published in 2021 by
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Letters and other material by Olga Tufnell Palestine Exploration Fund/Estate of Olga Tufnell, 2021
Introduction, editorial material and notes John D.M. Green and Ros Henry, 2021
Images Copyright holders named in captions, 2021
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Green, J.D.M., and Henry, R. 2021. Olga Tufnells Perfect Journey : Letters and photographs of an archaeologist in the Levant and Mediterranean. London: UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787359062
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ISBN: 978-1-78735-904-8 (Hbk.)
ISBN: 978-1-78735-905-5 (Pbk.)
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781787359062
Frontispiece Olga Tufnell, travelling to Palestine in November 1931 (detail). The original image includes her travelling companions, with the note Noreen Norman, OT, Mary Luce, on the Aberdeen & Commonwealth Line, November 1931. See letter of 1416 November 1931. Olga Tufnell archive, Palestine Exploration Fund. Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
When Olga Tufnell wrote the words a perfect journey in a letter to her mother she was describing her first excursion to the Middle East. These three words would also be a good description of her life.
Olga Tufnell came from a privileged background and had little formal education. There was little indication during her youth to suggest the direction that life might lead her in. One of her greatest attributes, however, was a love of adventure for its own sake. This, combined with the happy chance of coming under the influence of Flinders Petrie, the great Egyptologist of the day, would lead this young woman to participate in excavations in Palestine and eventually make a major contribution to the archaeology of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. Her published reports on ancient Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir), where she spent some of the most crucial years of her life, are lasting testaments to her scholarship and dedication, as well as to the memory of the expeditions director, James Leslie Starkey.
These letters home show the foundation of that process and the beginning of her lifelong commitment to archaeology. The period from 1927 to 1938 saw the start of many friendships and professional relationships with well-known archaeologists and prominent persons. The letters give a contemporary view of life and times in an excavation camp and its setting from the archaeological, social and political perspective of the day, illuminated by Olgas own youthful enthusiasm and keen sense of humour. They illustrate the preoccupation of the time with biblical archaeology in Palestine, especially the sponsor Sir Charles Marstons hopes for Tell ed-Duweir; and Olgas references to biblical sources, including asking her mother to send out her Bible to enable her to check them.
Although surveys and excavations in Palestine had been carried out from the second half of the nineteenth century, archaeology was in a state of relative infancy compared to Egypt. Following the First World War, with Palestine under a British Mandate, interest in the geography, culture and heritage of the region greatly expanded. It seemed that many great discoveries were yet to be made. There were fewer restrictions than in Egypt, and local labour was relatively inexpensive. This fashionable cause attracted finance from institutions and private individuals, facilitating large-scale excavations, within which Olga Tufnell was to play a small but significant part.
To some extent, Olgas letters reflect a typically British attitude towards Palestine in the Mandate period, one that today might be viewed as colonialist or orientalist, affected by the biases and prejudices of the society she was born into. At the same time, they reflect a paternalistic (or perhaps maternalistic) approach in that she took her own practical steps towards assisting and improving the situation for native people, especially through the camp hospital, which provided basic medical care to many local Bedouin and anyone else who needed it. Her rapport and good relations with almost all the people she came into contact with illustrate her generosity of spirit and openness. The letters give a sense of life in a period of unrest, although often such references are muted, perhaps as she did not wish to cause alarm to family back home. They give an impression of the manner of travel in more spacious days: trains across Europe, steamships across the Mediterranean and expeditions in the open touring cars of the day (with their unreliable engines). Olga was an avid traveller, noticing all about her and making friends wherever she went. Above all the letters reflect Olgas personality, awareness of her surroundings and ability to understand and communicate, helping to explain the transition she made from untrained amateur to acknowledged scholar.
Ros Henry was first made aware of these letters by Heather Bell, late librarian of the Institute of Archaeology in London, to whom Olga had left a vast amount of material and which Heather in turn had handed over to the Palestine Exploration Fund. Olga herself had begun to transcribe some of these handwritten and fragile letters to preserve them as a record, perhaps with the intention to create a memoir. Years later it was suggested to Ros that she continue transcribing and editing them as they might be suitable for publication under the auspices of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
Ros was pleased to do this, as she remembers Olga with great affection having met her in 1955 by walking into the old Institute of Archaeology in Regents Park, armed with a degree in history and a short typing course. Ros asked Kathleen Kenyon (who had dug with her aunt at Wroxeter) if anyone needed an assistant, and was introduced to Olga. Luckily, Olga was in need and immediately set Ros to work proofreading Lachish IV , dividing up Fosse Temple material for museum collections around the world (they had had to wait a long time) and sorting sherds from bags unopened since the 1930s with the soil still on them.
