Yusra (archaeologist)

Yusra is the name of the Palestinian woman who worked with Dorothy Garrod, British archaeologist, in her excavations at Mount Carmel. Although very little is known of Yusra's life before or after, or even her full name, she was a prominent member of the excavation team between 1929 and 1935. She is credited with the discovery of Tabun 1, a 120,000-year-old Neanderthal skull from Tabun Cave. Yusra was identified by Dr Pamela Jane Smith during her PhD research at Cambridge University. She is an oral historian of British and Canadian twentieth-century archaeology where she investigates the creation, production and 'travel' of academic knowledge.

Mount Carmel and discovery of Tabun 1
Yusra who found Tabun I, the adult female Neanderthal skeleton. Smith writes, "Yusra acted as foreman in charge of picking out items before the excavated soil was sieved; over the years, she became expert in recognising bone, fauna, hominid and lithic remains and had spotted a tooth which led to the crushed skull. " One of Yusra's tasks required screening the excavated soil for artefacts before it. In 1932, whilst working at Tabun Cave, at Tabun 1, she found a tooth which was subsequently identified as part of a fragmented but mostly complete human skull. Once it was pieced together it was established that the skull was a female, adult Neanderthal who had lived between 120,000 and 50,000 years ago. It has been described Chris Stringer as "one of the most important human fossils ever found."

Yusra was from either Ijzim or Jaba', in the Haifa region known at the time as Mandatory Palestine. In 1929, British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod began excavating in the region around Mount Carmel and, following common practice at the time, she hired local workers from these villages to carry out the bulk of the work. Although not formally trained in archaeology, these workers were often skilled excavators with decades—sometimes generations—of experience. Unusually, Garrod hired large numbers of women to work on her excavations; more women than men. When Mary Kitson Clark visited the first season of excavations, she noted the 'feminist' work ethic at the site: men did menial tasks, whilst women did the skilled work of excavation and recording. Yusra was one of these women.

Yusra remained with Garrod throughout her excavations at Mount Carmel, from 1929 to 1935, working on important prehistoric sites such as Tabun, El Wad, Es Skhul, Shuqba and Kebara. She was "the most expert" of all of the women Garrod employed and she was the foreman. She often worked alongside Jacquetta Hawkes, one of Garrod's students who subsequently became a prominent archaeologist and writer.

Later life and legacy
Yusra shared with Hawkes, her ambition to study at Newnham College, Cambridge, where Garrod was a fellow, but she failed to achieve her ambition. It is unknown what became of her once the excavations at Mount Carmel excavations ended. The settlements of Izjim and Jaba' were depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which made any later attempts to find Yusra frustrating. What little is known of her life comes from Mary Kitson Clark's diaries, Jacquetta Hawke's recollections, and Dorothy Garrod's papers which were rediscovered by Pamela Jane Smith, during her PhD research at Cambridge University in 1996.

Yusra's discovery of Tabun 1 has made a lasting contribution to science. Her story has been discussed by many people as an example of a woman whose contribution to the development of early archaeology has been largely unacknowledged and forgotten.