Woolley, (Charles) Leonard (1880–1960)

English archaeologist. After taking part in an expedition to Nubia 1907–11, he excavated the Hittite city of Carchemish in Syria until 1914; Tell el Amarna in Egypt; Atchana (the ancient Alalakh) in the Hatay near Antioch on the Turkish-Syrian border 1935–39 and 1946–49; and brought to light the ancient Sumerian civilization at Ur in Iraq.

In 1929 Woolley claimed that silt deposits at Ur attested to a flood that might have given rise to the Bible story.

Besides his scholarly excavation reports, he published popular accounts of his work which helped to promote archaeology to a nonspecialist audience. Titles include Ur of the Chaldees 1929, Digging Up the Past 1930, and A Forgotten Kingdom 1953.

Woolley was born in London, studied at Oxford, and became assistant keeper in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, first excavating at Corbridge in Northumberland. During World War I he carried out intelligence staff work in Egypt, and was a prisoner in Turkey for two years. In World War II he was in the Intelligence Department of the War Office from 1939, and became archaeological adviser to the War Office 1943, responsible for the protection of monuments in the war areas.

He published his autobiography Spadework 1953.