William Albright

UXL Newsmakers, (2005)

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Albright excavated a site called Tell Beit Mirsim, which he determined was the city of Debir in the Bible. In 1932 he published a detailed description of the ten layers of the site and its pottery in the Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and added a correction and revision of the chronology of the Bronze Age layers of the site in 1933. Further descriptions of the Bronze Age layers and the Iron Age layers of the site followed in 1938 and 1943. With this work, Albright made Palestinian archaeology into a science, instead of what it had formerly been-"a digging in which the details are more or less well-described in an indifferent chronological framework which is as general as possible and often wildly wrong," according to Wright.

Wide Influence and Scholarly Legacy

In addition to his excavation and work in chronology, Albright advanced Near Eastern archaeology through his teaching of other scholars, and also through his work as editor of the American Schools of Oriental Research's Bulletin. He edited the journal from 1931 until 1968. During that time, he attracted a great deal of attention to ancient Near Eastern studies. The intense focus on discovery and learning in the journal excited readers, according to Wright, imparting a feeling of being on the cutting edge of archaeological discovery. Albright contributed articles to almost every issue, and showed his unusually deep and wide grasp of a wide range of subjects and disciplines, which he brought together in a masterful synthesis. He was a prolific writer, completing over 1100 articles and books during his lifetime.

Throughout his life, Albright was honored with numerous awards, honorary doctorates, and medals, and was given the title "Worthy One of Jerusalem"-the first time the award had been given to a non-Jew. After his death, his legacy continued as a large number of scholars, inspired by his work, became specialists in the areas Albright had pioneered. The American Schools of Oriental Research is now known as the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, in honor of Albright's exceptional contributions to the field.

Albright died in Baltimore, Maryland from multiple strokes on September 19, 1971—a few months after celebrating his eightieth birthday. In his preface to Hans Goedicke's Near Eastern Studies in Honor of William Foxwell Albright, Wendell Phillips wrote, "His religious training, which began before he could walk, became his career; the Bible has been the center of all his research, particularly the Old Testament, which made such a vivid impression on him as a boy. It was his real world more than the modern world in which he lived. He believed in it as history and he identified himself with it, just as he identified himself with the Old Testament warriors and kings."