The institute was established in 1919 as the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ). The London-based
Palestine Exploration Fund was instrumental in its foundation. The first Director was British archaeologist
John Garstang, and among its earliest students was architect-archaeologist
George Horsfield, later Chief Inspector of Antiquities in
British Mandate Transjordan. An excavation at
Tughbah Caves by BSAJ student
Francis Turville-Petre in 1925 yielded an important prehistoric find, the Galilee skull. Under Garstang's directorship, the BSAJ began excavations on
Mount Ophel, Jerusalem, with the Palestine Exploration Fund. Garstang resigned his post as Director of the BSAJ in 1926 and British archaeologist
John Winter Crowfoot, who had trained at the
British School at Athens, became the School's second Director. With his wife,
Molly Crowfoot, a noted expert in textiles, crafts and botany, John Crowfoot conducted excavations at Mount Ophel, Jerusalem (1927–1929),
Jerash (1928–1930) and
Samaria (1930–1935).
Dorothy Garrod, who excavated at Mount Carmel as a BSAJ student in 1929 along with
Mary Kitson-Clark and
Elinor Ewbank, produced evidence of the
Natufian culture. The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem had close ties to the
American Schools of Oriental Research, led by archaeologist
William Foxwell Albright, and the French
École Biblique, through the Reverend Fathers
Louis-Hugues Vincent,
Raphaël Savignac and
Félix-Marie Abel. In 1998 the BSAJ merged with the
British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History to form the
Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) and in 2001 was renamed the Kenyon Institute, after
Kathleen Kenyon, to reflect the wider range of disciplines supported by the institute as part of the CBRL. ==Notable people==