Madaline Harris-Schober awarded the Palestine Exploration Fund-Albright Institute Fellowship

Dr Madaline Harris-Schober has been awarded the international Palestine Exploration Fund-Albright Institute Fellowship by the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) Jerusalem.

Pictured: Dr Madaline Harris-Schober

Madaline’s thesis titled: ‘Ritual architecture, material culture and the practice of the philistines’, focuses on the recognition of the cult and ritual in the Late Bronze Age to Iron Age (1175-586 BCE) Levant.

As part of the Fellowship, Madaline will spend almost two months at the Albright Institute in Israel, and the Palestine Exploration Fund in London, in Winter 2024.

Her work will focus on the philistine sites of Ashdod and Tel Miqne-Ekron, with the goal of creating a comprehensive and accessible piece of published academic work which clearly and concisely details the early Iron Age ritual and cultic related architecture and finds of these sites.

“Through my research I’ve pinpointed gaps in the data and I look forward to re-examining the evidence to hopefully create a more consistent understanding of the early philistine period. In particular, I’ll be focusing on the older sections of the excavations from the 70s and early 80s. I’m looking forward to reconnecting with the legacy data and hope to shed some light on the incredible work of the original academics and archaeologists who’ve come before me.

“I’m hopeful a thorough audit of the catalogue will illuminate some of the things we’ve missed, it could be as minute as a pot shard with a specific design or a cluster of animal bones lost in the data which will add a missing piece to the puzzle of the history of the philistines in the Near East,” she said.

Graduating in December summa cum laude with a PhD in Classics & Archaeology, Madaline is also a recipient of the Jessie Webb, Alma Hansen, and Norman McGeorge Scholarships.