Unpublished tombs, work-life-balance, and ungrateful visitors: Harald Ingholt’s excavation diaries

While Palmyra has never truly been a "lost city", parts of its archaeological history remain buried in archives. One of these archives is that of Danish archaeologist Harald Ingholt’s and his extensive excavations in the 1920s and 1930s. He focused primarily on the southwestern necropolis, where he uncovered more than 80 tombs - however, only 13 of these structures were ever published by him. Consequently, a significant chapter of Palmyra’s exploration remained effectively "lost" to the scholarly world for nearly a century. Within the Palmyra Portrait Project, Ingholt’s Archive was (re)opened and his fieldwork diaries from 1924, 1925, and 1928 have proven to be a detailed documentation of his work in Palmyra. Especially interesting are of course the tombs that were never published but the diaries offer insight beyond the archaeological explorations. 

Through the analysis of Ingholt’s field diaries, we can also reconstruct the daily realities of the excavation. These private records, when interwoven with official reports to the French Antiquities Service, photographic documentation, and contemporary newspaper accounts, resurrect a portrait of Palmyra under the French Mandate. This presentation utilizes Ingholt’s diaries to demonstrate how archaeological narratives can be recovered, offering new insights into the methods, labour, and social dynamics of early 20th-century fieldwork in Syria.

Lecture: 16-17 / Reception 17-18