It was established at a time when control of Palestine had recently passed from the Ottoman Empire to the British following the end of the First World War, and when archaeology was being professionalised and modernised.

[2] A preliminary meeting was held on 9 January 1920 at which a number of eminent academic, political, and military figures were present, and a constitution adopted which included a statement that the object of the society be the "cultivation and publication of researches on the ancient Orient".

[1] The first general meeting of the society was held at Jerusalem on 22 March 1920 at which the papers read included: "Influence of topography in the Psalms" by John Punnett Peters; "A Palestinian Hebrew Inscription" by Nahum Slouschz; "Some fresh meanings for Hebrew roots" by David Yellin; "Noun classes and polarity in Hamitic, and their bearing upon the origin of the Semites" by William H. Worrell; and "The Bethlehem Mosaics" by Timotheos Themelis.

[3] The first patrons were the soldier Viscount Allenby who had captured Jerusalem for the British in 1917, and the first High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel.

[7] The creation of the society coincided with a change of government in Palestine after the Ottoman Empire lost control of the Holy Land to the British following the end of the First World War, ushering in what the founders of the society hoped would be a new era of archaeological research under a more "enlightened" administration than had been the case under the Turks when researchers had "laboured under many and tiresome disabilities".