The story
The CBRL was established in 1998 as an amalgamation of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (now the Kenyon Institute) and the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History (now the British Institute in Amman). While its predecessors mainly existed to support archaeological research in their respective host countries, the newly formed CBRL, sponsored by the British Academy, broadened its remit to include research into the history, culture and society of the entire Levant.
Plans to open a CBRL institute in Damascus have been suspended due to the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
From Wikipedia’s article on Council for British Research in the Levant, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3