The main goal of this project was to digitise historical rare books and archival materials from the holdings of the Council for British Research in the Levant’s Kenyon Institute (Jerusalem) and Amman Institute (Jordan), originally part of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ). Focused on preservation, the project created archival digital copies of 99 rare books (16th–20th century) and BSAJ archives (1920–1950), which document the history, archaeology, and cultural heritage of Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, Sudan, and Egypt.

These materials—at risk from deterioration—include unique publications like excavation reports, Mandate-era records, and early travelogues, many surviving in only a handful of copies globally. The 2023–2024 digitisation produced 33,000 high-resolution TIFF files, with one set stored on CBRL’s cloud for institutional access and another deposited at the British Library for long-term preservation. While the original collections remain in Jerusalem and Amman, the digital outputs aim to reunite fragments separated by geopolitical displacement and expand access for scholars, particularly Palestinians facing barriers to physical archives. Future plans include open-access dissemination via CBRL’s repository, ensuring these endangered materials endure for future research and decolonial scholarship.