BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

The New Face of the Albright

BAR interviews Albright Director James Fraser

For more than a century, the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research has been the leading American research center in Jerusalem. Some of biblical archaeology’s most notable scholars—William F. Albright, Nelson Glueck, and William Dever, among others—have served as its director. James Fraser, who became the Albright director in October 2023, is a former British Museum curator and a specialist in the Bronze Age Levant. Biblical Archaeology Review recently spoke with Fraser about his appointment, his archaeological and museum background, and what he enjoys most about being the institute’s director.

James Fraser, Director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. Photo courtesy James Fraser.

What is the Albright Institute and how does it support archaeology in Israel?

Fraser: The “serious” answer is that the Albright is a US archaeological institute in Israel that supports American scholars working in the region. In fact, this year marks the Albright’s 100th year serving this mission from our iconic stone building in Jerusalem. Each year, the Albright hosts a fellowship program of American, Israeli, Palestinian, and international researchers from all fields of the humanities, especially archaeology and biblical studies, and these fellows come and live at the Albright for several months to study in our library. The institute also serves as a base for archaeological teams and other scholars visiting Israel, and we help connect them with local scholars and institutions. Most importantly, our fellowship program, married with a program of public lectures, workshops and tours, pulls a wide spectrum of people to the Albright to form a dynamic academic community like no other in the city. In this regard, the “less serious” but equally important answer is that the Albright is simply an astonishing and unique place that exists beyond its limestone walls as a community of people dedicated to better understand the deep history of the region, and I think there is a certain magic in that.

Entrance to the Albright Institute in Jerusalem. Image courtesy of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research.

What are some of the institute’s major projects?

Fraser: The institute is named after one of its first directors, William F. Albright, who pioneered the development of archaeology as a scientific discipline in the southern Levant and particularly the cross-over between field archaeology and biblical research. In the 1920s and ’30s, Albright conducted archaeological excavations on behalf of the institute at key sites such as Tell Beit Mirsim, and that tradition was continued by subsequent directors who led institute excavations at sites such as Tel Miqne (Seymour Gitin) and at Legio as part of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project (Matthew Adams). I run a field project excavating a 5,000-year-old olive oil factory in northern Jordan, although I’m sitting on my troweling hand until I publish the first three seasons.

However, the institute has plenty of other projects to keep me busy. For example, last November, Albright’s granddaughter and great-granddaughter generously donated an astounding archive of Albright’s personal effects, including photographs, film negatives, and hundreds of letters that he wrote to his mother during his time in Jerusalem. This is a phenomenally rich resource for researchers investigating the development of archaeology in the region, and for those interested more generally in the American experience of the Holy Land over some pretty transformative decades. I’m seeking financial support to establish a project to digitize, transcribe, and share this archive online so that researchers all over the world can access this resource and ultimately come to the institute to study the originals.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced since becoming director?

Fraser: Oh boy. My first day was supposed to have been October 8, 2023—the day after the Hamas attack. My flight from London was cancelled, but I managed to get in three days later, and I’ve been running the institute in a country at war ever since. Many of our fellows had to postpone their stay, which temporarily affects our academic program and our financial bottom line. However, I’m proud that the Albright has managed to remain open throughout these difficult times, and on any given day you could wander into the library to find American, Israeli, and Palestinian researchers working quietly alongside each other. I think that’s amazing—a testament to what a special place the Albright is, and to the unique role it serves.

What are you most looking forward to as director of the Albright?

Fraser: We celebrate the Albright’s 100th year this summer, and I am super excited as we build up to this event in late June. These celebrations mark an astonishingly successful, long-term American commitment to scholarship in the region, and they signal our intent to be here for the next hundred to come. Additionally, I’m looking forward to welcoming people back through our doors as we resume our normal academic and public programs. Frankly, I think a bit of normalcy is what most people are looking forward to right now here in Jerusalem. And as the various archaeological digs start up over the summer, I can’t wait to take our fellows on fieldtrips to see these amazing sites.

Before coming to the Albright, you were a curator at the British Museum. What did you enjoy most about your time there?

Fraser: I worked as Curator for the Ancient Levant and Anatolia. Every morning, before the museum was open to the public, I would walk alone through the Egyptian sculpture gallery on my way to my office. I defy anybody to do that commute and not arrive at their desk with a big smile on their face. I also curated a major exhibition called “Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece,” which looked at the transmission of artistic styles across the Middle East and the Aegean at a time when Greece and Persia were at war. I had never curated an exhibition at that level before. It was an exhilarating ride, and I learned just as much about how museums work as I did about ancient Persia and Athens.

How does your museum experience help you serve the needs of the Albright?

Fraser: One of the roles I enjoyed most at the British Museum was engaging with international museums across the world and diplomatic representations in London. For example, for the “Luxury and Power” exhibition, we managed to procure some high-level objects on loan from the national museums of Armenia and Bulgaria, including the famous Bulgarian Panagyurishte Treasure. I loved forging links with international colleagues, and in fact I’ve just returned from a trip to the National Museum in Armenia, where this time I represented the Albright. In Jerusalem, the Albright Institute is a renowned international institution. Making such links with other international actors, and with different Israeli, Palestinian, and other international organizations is a key aspect of the job.

You’ve excavated in many different parts of the world. How is archaeology in Israel different from other places you’ve worked?

Fraser: Israel is one of the most intensively studied regions on the planet as far as archaeology is concerned. This is a wonderful situation, as it means that archaeologists have amassed an incredible amount of data on which researchers can draw to ask questions at finely resolved timescales, or that are hyper-specific to certain subregions. In contrast, I’ve also worked in places such as Uzbekistan or Kashmir or the Solomon Islands where the fundamental building blocks of archaeology as an academic discipline are still being defined—issues such as basic chronological sequences of different styles of pottery. These projects are equally important, but their research questions resonate in different ways.

Bronze Age dolmen from the area of Johfiyah in northern Jordan. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

You’re one of the world’s leading experts on dolmens. What are dolmens and what do we learn from studying them?

Fraser: The word “dolmen” comes from an ancient French (Breton) phrase meaning “stone table,” and that is the best description: a table-like monument built from two vertical megalithic slabs with a horizontal slab placed across the top. Dolmens have emerged as monumental traditions across the world in different places at different times and for different purposes. In the southern Levant, dolmens were built as funerary monuments—houses of the dead—in which families would place their dead over several generations. Here, they date to the beginning of the Bronze Age, around 3700 to 3000 BCE. By studying dolmens, we can learn about burial traditions during a significant period when people went from living in small towns to major cities. But more importantly, I think, we learn about the changing relationship between people and their landscape, as dolmens were constructed as visible monuments to be seen by the people whose families were interred inside them, and by strangers coming to new places and seeing them for the first time.

What excavation projects are you currently involved in?

Fraser: I currently direct an excavation project in northern Jordan at the site of Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan. It is such a small site that most archaeologists would classify it as a farmstead or hamlet. And yet it is surrounded by a massive enclosure wall. Why protect such a small site? With Dr. Caroline Cartwright (Senior Research Scientist at the British Museum), I am testing a theory that such sites served as seasonal “factories” for the production and storage of olive oil during the harvest each fall, and that they were actually empty throughout the rest of the year. Khirbet Um al-Ghozlan is a key site for understanding the critical relationship between the rise (and fall) of the region’s earliest cities and the critical production of olive oil. The Middle East was always an oil economy—albeit olive oil over 5,000 years ago.

What are some of your other research interests?

Fraser: Although my research focuses on the Bronze Age in the ancient Levant, to be honest the best thing about being the director of the Albright is that my research interests become those of our fellows in residence, as I get to hear all about their research, help them connect with local scholars, and arrange trips to go see relevant archaeological sites. Yesterday, I visited the renewed Iron Age excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim; in a few weeks, we will go visit the Chalcolithic excavations at Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea. And our spring lecture series includes topics on just about everything in between. It’s an exhilarating job—and I love every minute of it.

This is an expanded version of the article “The New Face of the Albright,” published in the Summer 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.