Peter Ackroyd (1916–2005)

Abstract

Peter Ackroyd was the editor of the Palestine Exploration Quarterly from 1971 to 1986. He had preceded that experience with a spell as Secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1962–70), and followed it by being chair of the Fund (1986–90). His involvement with and commitment to Palestinian archaeology is therefore clear enough. Yet he was not himself a ‘dirt archaeologist’; indeed, he told me once that he was nervous of digging in his own garden for fear of disturbing the fine collection of Alpines set up by his first wife Evelyn. (she died in 1990; Peter is survived by his second wife Ann, a long-standing friend, and also by four of the five children of his first marriage). When in 1967 the Society for Old Testament Study organised for its Jubilee the publication of a volume entitled Archaeology and Old Testament Study, edited by D. Winton Thomas, Peter contributed the article on Samaria. It stands somewhat apart from the important studies of different sites by eminent archaeologists which characterise the book. Careful attention is indeed given to the various archaeological discoveries from Samaria, but the article shows an awareness, then by no means universal, of the problems involved in relating archaeological discoveries to literary evidence. The term ‘biblical archaeology’ was at that time in regular use; Ackroyd was one of the first to recognise the difficulties it might involve. This readiness to question underlying academic assumptions was characteristic of the whole of his scholarly work. He was one of the first to recognise the importance of the Second Temple period in the development both of the biblical material itself and of the community which produced it, and whether in the form of substantial books (such as Exile and Restoration) or briefer essays (such as those collected in The Chronicler in his Age) he did much to sharpen scholarly awareness of the issues of that period. It was my privilege to be his colleague for twenty years at King’s College, London. To him more than anyone else I owe the recognition of the richness and variety of the Hebrew Bible, and the encouragement to explore it. I know that many colleagues and students share that experience; Desmond Tutu, for one, who studied with him in the 1960s, has never tired of saying how much he owed to Peter Ackroyd. He died in January at the age of 88, after a long period of poor health.