Hasan Awad

Hasan ʿAwad al-Qatshan (born 1912–13) was a Bedouin archaeologist associated with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities. Working with his partner Gerald Lankester Harding and other western archaeologists, he played a role in a number of major discoveries, including those of the Lachish letters and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Archaeological career ʿAwad was born to the Negev Bedouin Hanajira of Beersheba. Though not formally educated in archaeology, he began his training as a teenager, on Flinders Petrie's excavations at Tell Jemmeh (1926–1927). working with James Leslie Starkey at Tell ed-Duweir (Lachish, 1932–1939), the American Schools of Oriental Research at Dhiban (1950–1953), Henri de Contenson at Tell esh-Shuna (1953), and Diana Kirkbride at Petra (1955–1956). Harding credited ʿAwad with the discovery of the Lachish letters, In 1952, Harding heard that local Bedouin had found a new cave at Qumran Caves, the site of the discovery the Dead Sea Scrolls. ʿAwad joined Harding's expedition to the caves along with Dominique Barthélemy, Józef Milik, Henri de Contenson, Roland de Vaux, Azmi Khalil, and Ibrahim Assula, and was responsible for supervising the party's Bedouin labourers. John M. Allegro recounted Hasan's role in one episode during the exploration of the caves: