The Society for Biblical Literature (SBL), along with the American Oriental Society (AOS) and the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), endorse a proposal to establish a school in Palestine as an overseas research center. SBL initiates the concept in a circular in 1895, which gains the pledge of 11 institutions.
Under the name the “American School of Oriental Study and Research in Palestine,” the organization was born.
ASOR’s first presence overseas is established in 1900 in Jerusalem, with Charles C. Torrey, an Old Testament scholar at Yale University, serving as director for that year. Torrey, supported by the U.S. consul in Jerusalem Selah Merrill, establishes ASOR’s initial headquarters in a large room in the Grand New Hotel inside the Jaffa Gate area. Image: Doorway of house at 6 Ethiopia Street, Jaffa
Torrey begins ASOR’s first archaeological field work project with the excavation of tombs at Sidon.
The Bulletin of ASOR (BASOR) publishes its first volume as an interdisciplinary English-language forum for scholars worldwide in subjects relating to the archaeology and history of the ancient Near Eastern world.
William Foxwell Albright was appointed ASOR’s first long-term director in Jerusalem.
Image: The Jerusalem property in 1920 on which the ASOR School was later constructed.
ASOR is formally incorporated in the U.S. and James A. Montgomery of the University of Pennsylvania is named its first President. With the imminent addition of another school in Baghdad, the organization changes its name to “American Schools of Oriental Research.”
ASOR adopts the Egyptian ankh hieroglyph, the symbol of life, containing within it the Babylonian dinger, the eight-pointed star formed by four cuneiform wedges, signifying deity.
ASOR's second center, the Baghdad School, is founded.
Completion of the Annual Professor and main building of a new ASOR facility, later named the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, that would house 10 rooms for students and visiting scholars.
Image 1: The front of the Albright building and left wing nearing completion.
Image 2: The rear of the building with unfinished right wing in the foreground.
Seasons start at Tell Beit Mirsim, chosen by Albright and senior fellow Melvin Grove Kyle, as an initially modest excavation project that turned into one of the most significant excavations of the period.
Image: Tell Beit Mirsim staff in 1932: Standing (left to right) William Gad (surveyor), Cyrus Gordon (ASOR Baghdad), Henry Detweiler (architect), John Bright (Union Seminary), W.F. Stinespring (Yale University), Rev. Eugene Liggit (Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminar), Rev. Vernon Broyles (Union Seminary), Aage Schmidt (Danish Shiloh Expedition), Front row (left to right) James L. Kelso (Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary), W.F. Albright (Johns Hopkins University), Melvin G. Kyle (Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary), Nelson Glueck (ASOR).
Nelson Glueck succeeds Millar Burrows as Annual Director of ASOR.
Image: Millar Burrows with ASOR vehicle in Jerusalem, July 1936.
The Biblical Archaeologist was inaugurated by G.E. Wright as its editor. Its first editorial board consisted of W.F. Albright (Johns Hopkins), Millar Burrows (Yale), and E.A. Speiser (University of Pennsylvania). It was to be published quarterly at an initial subscription price of 50 cents per year.
Journal of Cuneiform Studies is founded by Director Albrecht Goetze.
The Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts are brought to ASOR for identification and authentication.
Image: Dead Sea Scrolls research was to occupy many scholars at the Jerusalem School through to the end of the century. Prominent among these is John Strugnell of Harvard University, seen here studying the ancient text 4Q394 as an Albright Institute National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow in 1981-2.
During the Suez conflict in 1956, staff were evacuated from the Jerusalem School but returned shortly thereafter.
ASOR scholars were involved in the long-term excavation at Sardis, in western Türkiye.
The school in Jerusalem, which was in peril of being sold amid political and military tensions in the city, is determined as unsold as the buyer’s check to Annual Director John Marks was never cashed and the buyer had stopped payment. The property was turned over to the American Consulate General for temporary use while the ASOR Executive Committee contemplated the property’s future.
The Baghdad School closes due to political tensions and becomes the Committee on Mesopotamian Civilization.
A new center is created in Amman, Jordan, to allow scholars to continue working on both sides of the Jordan River. The center is incorporated under the named the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR).
ASOR starts its sponsorship of a series of excavations, financed with U.S. federal funds, at Punic and Roman Carthage. ASOR sponsors a new center nearby, the Carthage Research Institute, as a base for the excavation and survey work at the site.
The Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) in Nicosia was formally established.
Image: The CAARI building, with its flowering “Bottle Brush” tree in the foreground, and the “Camel’s Foot” tree behind.
Establishment of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) was led by Elizabeth Moynihan, who would become ASOR’s first chair of the board of trustees (1984-1986).
Image: ASOR Trustee Elizabeth Moynihan (left) with President James A. Sauer in front of the new ASOR administration office in Philadelphia in 1983.
William G. Dever, former director of the AIAR in Jerusalem, became ASOR’s Second Vice President for Archaeological Policy, and expanded ASOR-affiliated projects through a program that pursued higher standards of timely publication and fieldwork.
Image: In the summer of 1984, the ASOR CAP tour of Middle East excavations visited 45 field projects in Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Cyprus. At the Tall al-Umeiri base camp, tour members examine the object registration system with Madaba Plains Project Director Lawrence Geraty (left) and Umeiri Registrar E.E. Platt (center). Tour members (left to right) include AIAR Vice President Carol Meyers, ASOR First Vice President Eric Meyers, ASOR Second Vice President William Dever and ASOR President James Sauer.
CASOR is established as a vehicle for ASOR members and friends in Canada to be able to participate in raising fund support for the organization. The Scheuer Medal was introduced and given to Trustee Richard J. Scheuer for long-term service and support for ASOR and its overseas institutes.
ASOR moves its headquarters from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to Boston University.
ASOR holds its first independent Annual Meeting in Napa, California.
The Biblical Archaeologist is renamed Near Eastern Archaeology to reflect the publication's broader geographic, chronological, and intellectual scope.
ASOR joins the American Council of Learned Societies.
ASOR celebrates its centennial during the Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, among other celebratory events in Washington, D.C., and the overseas centers.
Image: (left to right) Honorees Charles U. Harris (as Life Trustee) and Board Chairman P.E. MacAllister (Scheuer Medal recipient) at the Centennial Kickoff Celebration in New Orleans, November 23, 1996.
ASOR’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives, an international collaboration of scholars and institutions who work under the auspices of ASOR, is founded.
