Frederick Jones Bliss (22 January 1859-–3 June 1937) was an American

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

Biography

He was born in

Mount Lebanon Mount Lebanon (, ; , ; ) is a mountain range in Lebanon. It is about long and averages above in elevation, with its peak at . The range provides a typical alpine climate year-round. Mount Lebanon is well-known for its snow-covered mountains, ...

, Syria, on 22 January 1859. His father,

Daniel Bliss Daniel Bliss (August 17, 1823 in Georgia, Vermont, United States – July 27, 1916 in Beirut, Lebanon) was a Christian missionary from the United States and the founder of the American University of Beirut. Life and work Born in the town of ...

, was first a Congregational missionary and later president of the

Syrian Protestant College The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs lead ...

, the future American University of Beirut. Frederick J. graduated from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

(1880) and then taught at the Syrian Protestant College, thereafter attending Union Theological Seminary. After training under

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, Bliss became involved with the

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem by Royal Engineers of the War Department. The Fund is the oldest known organization i ...

working in the field of

Biblical archaeology Biblical archaeology is an academic school and a subset of Biblical studies and Levantine archaeology. Biblical archaeology studies archaeological sites from the Ancient Near East and especially the Holy Land (also known as Land of Israel and ...

at the site of Tell el-Hesi between 1894 and 1897, while concurrently leading an expedition that dug in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, where he collaborated with A. C. Dickie. Between 1898 and 1900, along with R.A.S. Macalister, Bliss excavated several sites in the

Shephelah The Shephelah () or Shfela (), or the Judaean Foothills (), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel stretching over between the Judaean Mountains and the Coastal Plain. The different use of the term "Jud ...

region of modern

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, helping to improve the

chronology Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...

of the region. His excavation reports appeared frequently in the Quarterly Statement of the

, and included the first jar handle stamped by one of the

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

LMLK seal The LMLK seal appears on the handles of several large storage jars from the Kingdom of Judah, where it was first issued during the reign of Hezekiah around 700 BCE. Seals bearing these four Hebrew letters have been discovered primarily on uneart ...

s (in 1899, this was also the first one with a 4-winged icon) as well as the first complete

MMST MMST (Hebrew: ''MMŠT'') is a word written in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, Paleo-Hebrew abjad script. It appears exclusively on LMLK seal inscriptions, seen in Archaeology of Israel, archaeological findings from the ancient Kingdom of Judah, whose mea ...

inscription (in 1900). He was dismissed as the head of the Fund in 1900 due to a disagreement with his peers over the handling of artefacts retrieved from archaeological digs and their transfer to

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

at the behest of the Ottoman authority.Beatrice St. Laurent
The Imperial Museum of Antiquities in Jerusalem, 1890–1930 - An Alternate Narrative
''

Jewish Quarterly '' The Jewish Quarterly'' is an international Jewish publication that was based in the UK publication until 2021; the journal is now published by Australian publisher Morry Schwartz, With four issues released a year, ''The Jewish Quarterly'' focu ...

'' 55, pp. 19–20 After the publication of his and Macalister's ''Excavations in Palestine'' in 1902, he was not active in the field.

Bibliography

References

External links

Frederick J. Bliss in The Palestine Exploration Fund Bliss Family Papers
from the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections 1859 births 1939 deaths American archaeologists American expatriates in the Ottoman Empire {{US-archaeologist-stub Amherst College alumni