Hisham's Palace - History of Study

History of Study

The northern area of the site was noted, but not excavated, in 1894 by F.J Bliss, but the major source of archaeological information comes from the excavations of Palestinian archaeologist, D.C. Baramki between 1934 and 1948. In 1959 Baramki's colleague, colonial administrator for the British Mandate government Robert W. Hamilton, published the major work on Hisham's Palace, Khirbat al-Mafjar: An Arabian Mansion in the Jordanian Valley. Baramki's archaeological research is unfortunately absent from this volume, and as such, Hamilton's analysis is exclusively art historical. Baramki's research on the archaeological aspects of the site, particularly the ceramics, was published in various preliminary reports and articles in the Quarterly of the Palestinian Department of Antiquities. Many of the finds from Baramki and Hamilton's excavations are now held in the Palestinian Archaeology Museum (Rockefeller) in Jerusalem.

In 2006, new excavations were carried out under the direction of Hamdan Taha of the Palestinian National Authority Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Current research is being conducted by the Jericho Mafjar Project, a collaboration between the ministry and archaeologists from the University of Chicago.