Timothy Harrison

Timothy P. Harrison is a Canadian professor of archaeology at the University of Toronto. He specializes in Near Eastern archaeology of Bronze of Iron Age civilizations as well as its ethnicity, urbanism, various exchange networks and ceramic analysis. A Ph.D. graduate from the University of Chicago, he is an Associate Chair and Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at both Archaeological Institute of America and University of Toronto.

In 2009 Timothy Harrison, as a member of the Tayinat Archaeological Project had excavated a temple that was dated to the time of King Solomon which gave him and his colleagues a glimpse into the Dark Age Near East.

In 2011 Timothy Harrison had excavated a 3,000 year-old lion which was made out of marble and presumably was used as decoration of citadel gate complex in Kunulua (later Tayinat) when it was a capital of Syro-Hittite Kingdom of Patina. The gate complex was similar to the one that was discovered in 1911 by Leonard Woolley at the royal Hittite city of Carchemish.

In 2012 Harrison, along with the Tayinat Archaeological Project had unearthed an 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) high Šuppiluliuma I statue dated to approximately 1000-738 BC in southeastern Turkey.

Since 2012 Timothy Harrison leads Computational Research on the Ancient Near East excavations at the Orontes Watershed along with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and was in collaboration with Bologna, British Columbia, Carleton, Cornell, Durham universities.

In 2015 Harrison had rejected the Sea Peoples invasion theory, suggesting that the ascending Philistines used to live at Tel Tayinat as it is proven by the discoveries of pottery and hieroglyphic writings in Luwian language dating to Late Helladic III which was excavated at the place.

In 2016 Timothy Harrison was one of the speakers at the Mississippi State University, his topic there was "The Battle for Armageddon: David, Solomon and the Early Israelite Monarchy as Viewed from Megiddo".

In 2017 he, along with 20 colleagues, had excavated a piece of a woman's statue which was 1.1 metres (3 ft 7 in) high and 0.7 metres (2 ft 4 in) wide from Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina which was dated to circa 1000-738 BC. The statue was discovered 75 kilometres (47 mi) of Aleppo, Syria. The size of the piece, indicated to him and the researchers, that the full statue was possibly 4 to 5 metres (13 to 16 ft) high and since the face was intentionally damaged it was suggested that it was used for various rituals.

In 2018 Timothy Harrison had established an archaeological park at Amik Valley, Tell Tayinat in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.