Philip Langstaffe Ord Guy

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Philip Langstaffe Ord Guy (born January 23, 1885 - † December 7, 1952 in Jerusalem ) was a British officer and archaeologist.

Life

Philip Guy was born in Scotland in 1885 to Robert and Lucy Guy. He grew up in Pollockshaws ( Renfrewshire ), now a suburb of Glasgow . After visiting the Charterhouse School Guy Latin and Greek at the studied Merton College of Oxford University (1903-06) and Jura at the University of Glasgow (1906-09). In both studies, however, he remained without a degree. During the First World War he served in the French and British armies . He took part in excavations at Karkemish and Tell el-Amarna .

In 1922 he was appointed Chief Inspector of the Antiquities Department in the Mandate Government for Palestine . During this time he excavated an Iron Age cemetery on Mount Carmel . His marriage in 1925 to Jemima Ben-Jehuda, the daughter of the famous Hebrew lexicographer Eliezer Ben-Jehuda , brought him close to Zionist circles. Apparently this fact played a role in the appointment of the successor to John Garstang as head of the British School of Archeology in Jerusalem , for which Guy would have been an ideal candidate. Apparently, however, he withdrew his candidacy due to political resistance. Instead, he became director of the Megiddo excavations from 1927 to 1935 , carried out by the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago . The first attempts at aerial photography with an electrically controlled camera go back to his initiative. His assignment of some building structures to Solomon's time has been influential up to the present day , in particular the identification of the so-called “Solomon's horse stables” on the basis of 1 Kings 9.15-22  EU , although these theses were criticized at an early stage and are now almost unanimously disproved , since they can be dated to the time of the Omrids or even later. However, the director of the Chicago Oriental Institute, James H. Breasted , fired Guy in 1934 due to various problems including: a. because the excavations were not progressing fast enough for him. A negative consequence, however, was that Guy only partially completed his publications and the excavation results for Stratum VI were only published about 70 years later.

In 1935, Guy was finally appointed director of the British School of Archeology in Jerusalem. During this time he began an archaeological survey of the country, initiated a rescue excavation on Tell Qudadi and examined the ancient dams at Mamshit (Kurnub). The field work was severely disrupted by the Arab uprising . So was z. B. the British archaeologist James Leslie Starkey shot dead by Arab insurgents in 1938. Under these circumstances, financial support for ventures remained limited. Handicapped in his archaeological work, Guy tried himself as a correspondent for British newspapers and was also active in politics.

With the onset of World War II , Guys ended his duties as director of the British School and he rejoined the British armed forces. He served u. a. as military governor of Benghazi and Asmara . He ended his military career as a Lieutenant Colonel . In 1947 he rejoined the antiquities department and remained in Israel after the end of the British Mandate government in 1948. He was one of the founding members of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums founded on July 26, 1948 under the direction of Shmuel Yeivin . Further excavations led him u. a. to Jaffa , Bet Jerach and Ajjelet ha-Shachar . He was also a member of the editorial board of the Israel Exploration Journal .

Guy died in Jerusalem at the age of 67 after a brief illness. He is buried in the Alliance Church International Cemetery in the Emek Repha'im in Jerusalem.

Publications (selection)

  • New Light from Armageddon. Second Provisional Report (1927-29) on the Excavations at Megiddo in Palestine (= Chicago Institute Communications 9). Chicago 1931.
  • Megiddo Tombs (= Chicago Oriental Institute Publications 33). Chicago 1938.

literature

  • PLO Guy 1885-1952 in memoriam. In: Israel Exploration Journal 3, 1953, pp. 1-3.
  • John DM Green: Archeology and Politics in the Holy Land: The Life and Career of PLO Guy. In: Palestine Exploration Quarterly 141, 2009, pp. 167-187 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John DM Green: Archeology and Politics in the Holy Land: The Life and Career of PLO Guy. In: Palestine Exploration Quarterly 141, 2009, pp. 167–187, here p. 171.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Guy, Philip Langstaffe Ord
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer and archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Scotland
DATE OF DEATH 7th December 1952
Place of death Jerusalem