George Horsfield

George Horsfield (born April 19, 1882 in Leeds , † 1956 in Kyrenia ) was a British archaeologist. He was best known for his excavation work in Gerasa and Petra .

Life

Horsfield was born in 1882 to the leather goods manufacturer Richard Horsfield and his wife Sarah. He attended the Leeds Grammar School from 1895 and then trained as an architect with George Frederick Bodley from 1901 . He then went to the United States and worked for the architecture firm Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson . In 1912, Horsfield and a friend founded their own architectural practice, which they both ran until 1914. With the outbreak of World War I, Horsfield returned to Great Britain and served in the Royal Naval Brigade . He took part in the Battle of Gallipoli and fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 . After recovering from trench fever, he was sent to India in 1918, where he worked as a senior architect for the Royal Engineers' military buildings .

In 1923 Horsfield became a student at the British School of Archeology in Jerusalem . From 1925 Horsfield led the excavations as well as the conservation and restoration work in Gerasa together with John Garstang . His architectural knowledge and his talent for drawing proved to be an invaluable advantage. He received special attention with the discovery of the southern theater. The Illustrated London News named him "Personality of the Week" in its August 1, 1925 issue. During his years in Transjordan , Horsfield lived in the “Antiquity House” in Gerasa.

In 1928 Horsfield became the "Chief Inspector of Antiquities" in Transjordan. From 1929 Horsfield was significantly involved in the excavation work in the Nabatean rock city of Petra. There he met the archaeologist Agnes Conway , who was interested in the excavations. Conway became a member of Horsfield's team. They became friends and stayed in touch until they became a couple. Conway and Horsfield were married in Jerusalem in January 1932 . After Horsfield's retirement in 1936, the Horsfields toured the Mediterranean region and eventually settled in London during World War II. After Agnes Conway's death in 1950, Horsfield moved to Cyprus, where he died in 1956.

Fonts

• The Cathedral Church of Liverpool . In: Architectural Record. Volume 31, Number 1, 1912, pp. 27-43.
• Jerash: Annual Report on Works of Conservation, 1925-26 . In: Government of Transjordan Antiquities Bulletin. Number 1, pp. 1-3.
• with Agnes Conway: Readers Letters: Archeology in Transjordan . In: Palestine Post, December 27, 1934, p. 4.
• with Agnes Conway: Sela-Petra, The Rock of Edom and Nabatene I. The Topography of Petra. II. Houses . In: Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine. Number 7, 1938, pp. 1-42.
• with Agnes Conway: Sela-Petra, the Rock, of Edom and Nabatene. III. Excavations . In: Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine. Number 8, 1938, pp. 87-115.
• with Agnes Conway: Sela-Petra, the Rock, of Edom and Nabatene. IV. The Finds . In: Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine. Number 9, 1942, pp. 105-204.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Amara Thornton: The Nobody: Exploring Archaeological Identity with George Horsfield 1882-1956 . In: Archeology International. Number 17, 2014, pp. 137–156 ( online ).
2. ↑ Amara Thornton: George Horsfield, Conservation and the British School of Archeology in Jerusalem. In: Antiquity Journal , 2009, accessed March 16, 2017.
3. ↑ Amara Thornton: In the Lens: George and Agnes Horsfield's Photographs. ( Memento of the original of July 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: MicroPasts , September 8, 2014.