Olga Tufnell FSA (26 January 1905 – 11 April 1985) was a British archaeologist who assisted on the excavation of the ancient city of Lachish in the 1930s.

[2][3] Her father, Beauchamp Le Fevre Tufnell had been a second lieutenant in the 4th Battalion of Essex Regiment,[4] and her mother, Blanche, maintained a broad range of cultural interests,[5] as well as working with the Anglo-Czech Society.

[6] She held the position of Hilda Petrie's secretary for five years, though she described it as "dull and repetitive work" in fundraising,[8] but also spent some time drawing and repairing pottery.

[8] Although Sir Flinders himself did not join the expedition in 1929, he sent Olga with a group of other archaeologists to Qau, where they spent two months recording the reliefs from the tombs of the ancient rulers.

[6] She and a few colleagues, including Gerald Lankester Harding, then joined the season's primary expedition, which was being led by James Leslie Starkey at the Tell Far'a tomb group in Palestine.

[6] Over the next six years, the team made some important finds, including the Lachish letters, but the work was interrupted by the murder of Starkey, while he was en route to the opening of the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.

[14] Whilst writing the report, she dealt with requests related to the excavation, including distributing the Lachish finds and sending some "unwanted pots" to a school museum.

[14] Although many scholars dismissed the field of scarabs and seals as "unreliable of chronology", Olga meticulously recorded the dimensions and styles of the artefacts.