In Mandatory Palestine, Yeiven was an active member of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, serving as its chair between 1944 and 1946.[5] Speaking at a meeting of the society in Tel Aviv in 1934, he celebrated archaeologists' "discovery of Hebrew Palestine" in excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim, Tel Megiddo, and Tel Lachish in the previous decade.[6] Later he participated in the first yedi'at ha-Aretz ("Knowledge of the Land") conference, organised by the society in Jerusalem in 1943, arguing for the expansion of regional museums to educate Jewish settlers about the antiquities of the country.[7] He also took part in excavations at Luxor (1924), Beit Shean (1924–28), Seleucia (1929–37) and was the co-director, with J. Krause-Marquet, of excavations at Ai in 1933.[3]