Archaeologist and keeper of the British Museum�s Middle East department who transformed its Levantine collectionThe ancient Levant � modern Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon � was home to a mosaic of bronze and iron age peoples such as...

The ancient Levant � modern Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon � was home to a mosaic of bronze and iron age peoples such as the Israelites, Philistines, Canaanites, Amorites and Phoenicians. While the Bible has long shaped our understanding of these cultures, we must approach its Old Testament texts with care, as they were written for specific audiences long after the events they describe. Jonathan Tubb, who has died aged 71 from cancer, championed archaeology as the primary lens for viewing past Levantine cultures on their own terms, helping to contextualise and sometimes confound biblical accounts.

As a curator in, and later keeper of, the Middle East department at the British Museum, Jonathan transformed the small patchy collection of artefacts in the barely adequate Palestine room that he found upon his appointment in 1979 into a compelling Levant gallery that ranged from the neolithic stone age to the conquests of Alexander the Great, rivalling the museum�s galleries for Mesopotamia, Egypt and Iran.

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