Fr Eugene Stockton (born 1934) is a retired Catholic priest and archaeologist in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, Australia. Early life and education Eugene Stockton grew up at Lawson in the Blue Mountains where an interest in the natural environment was nurtured. His mother Elsie, converted to the Catholic faith while working with religious sisters in the laundry of St Columba’s Seminary, Springwood. His father died tragically a few months after his birth. At only six years old the young Eugene Stockton announced that he was going to become a priest. He was accepted into the seminary when he was 13. After years of study at St Columba's Seminary, Springwood NSW and St Patrick's Seminary, Manly he was ordained a priest at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney in 1958 aged 22. He continued studies and was the first to gain a doctorate in Theology from the Catholic Institute of Sydney. He lectured at St Columba's and St Patrick's Seminary before travelling overseas to Rome where he completed a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He then spent four years in Jerusalem and studied at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, a Franciscan academic society and the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise, a French academic establishment in Jerusalem specializing in archaeology and biblical exegesis. Academic career Stockton was living at the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem when the Six Day War broke out in 1967. He was evacuated to Cyprus and later returned to relieve the Director of the British School of Archaeology and work on a thesis based on Arabian Cult Stones. During this time he befriended the famed scholar Roland de Vaux at the Ecole Biblique by helping with relief supplies from the British Consulate which was within the British School of Archaeology. Roland de Vaux influenced and guided Stockton with his thesis. Stockton gained considerable excavation experience while working on digs in the Jordan Valley near Jericho for the British School of Archaeology. These digs would continue for months at a time. Stockton claimed that once stratigraphic excavation experience was obtained on difficult mud brick sites, one was able to complete any other excavation work with ease. Returning to Sydney, Australia, Stockton completed a doctorate in Archaeology and Semitic Studies at the University of Sydney with his thesis on the Arabian Cult Stones. He continued to lecture at Catholic Seminary's in Sydney and later