In the Field and through the Archives. The 1928 American-British Campaign in Gerasa and the Excavation of the Church of St Theodore

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Gerasa, also known as Antiochia on the Chrysorrhoas, was a Decapolis city, today situated in modern Jordan. In 1928 the first large-scale excavations were undertaken at the site by an American-British team. The excavations continued until 1934, uncovering what is still considered a model example of a Roman city in the Near East, and research into the site’s history exploded with the excavations. It was the city’s Roman and Christian heritage that stood at the centre of the early excavations. This paper explores documentation from the first excavation campaign, which took place in the spring and summer of 1928, and asks how the past has mainly been reconstructed through the 1938 publication by C. H. Kraeling, and how Gerasa’s history might be explored in a more nuanced way by bringing to light the overlooked archival material held at Yale University Art Gallery.