About the Book
Although Community (or Public) Archaeology originated in western countries, it has now spread all over the world. It integrates the archaeological past with living peoples in new and unique ways. It is however, a rather loosely-defined field; to some it means an attitude and a theoretical concept, which is, or should be, valid for archaeology as a whole and for every archaeologist. For others it is a certain practice or sub-field of archaeology, which by now has its own experts - that is, community archaeologists. It is perhaps not surprising that in Israel/Palestine Community Archaeology touches heavily upon the present, perhaps more than upon the past. No archaeology in this region is 'neutral' and the living communities are part of the heated, on-going political, social and religious conflicts that have shaped the past, and are shaping this land for over more than a hundred years. The question is whether archaeology, including Community Archaeology, strive to neutrality? Can Community Archaeology free us from the hegemonic position of the archaeologies of nations and states? This is the first volume dedicated to Community Archaeology in Israel/Palestine. Chapters in the book challenge (in several ways, though not always explicitly) the traditional "Biblical Archaeology" approach to the archaeology of Israel/Palestine. They present their individual concepts and ideas about Community Archaeology in Israel/Palestine, bringing different questions and treating different case studies, and also reaching different though not unrelated conclusions. The volume gives a first, refreshing look of a new archaeology in an old land.
Table of Contents:
1.
The Nature and Development of Community Archaeology in
Israel/Palestine: An Introduction
Raz
Kletter and Liora Kolska Horwitz
2.
Sebastia: Promoting Community's Role in Preserving Cultural
Heritage in Conflict Areas
Osama
Hamdan, Al
Quds University and the Mosaic Centre, Jericho, Palestine,
and Carla Benelli, ATS
Custody of the Holy Land, Italy
3.
Something Old, Something New: Conducting Community Archaeology at the
Wrong Site
Tawfiq
Da'adli, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
4.
Community Archaeology in Israel: Test Cases, Observations - and
Questions
Gideon
Sulimani
5.
A Socialist Critique of Archaeology in Israel: Community and
Antiquities as Social Value
Ianir
Milevski, Israel Antiquities Authority
6.
Community Archaeology before Community Archaeology? Dhahr
el-Mazra'a (Nahariya) and Kfar Bar'am
Raz
Kletter
7.
Community Archaeology and the Har Michia Rock Art Park in the
Negev/al-Naqab
Joshua
Schmidt, University of Haifa, and Liora Kolska Horwitz
8.
Archaeological Communities in the Shadow of Dividedness: Impressions
from Israeli and Palestinian Scholars
Dirk
Conradie
9.
"Truth springeth out of the earth" (Psalm 85:12): The Museum
Curator and Community Archaeology
Irit
Ziffer, Eretz
Israel Museum
10.
Archaeology in a Tray: Integrating Students with Autism in Laboratory
Research
Nimrod
Marom, University of Haifa, Nofar Shamir, University of Haifa, Inbal
Vortman-Shoham, Avnei
Derech La'Haim [Milestones for Life], Roee
Shafir, University of Haifa, Lee Perry Gal, University
of Haifa / Israel Antiquities Authority,
Bat-Sheva Hadad, University of Haifa, and Guy Bar-Oz, University of
Haifa
11.
Silwan (East Jerusalem): Trying to Breach the Archaeological Siege of
a Community under Occupation
Yonatan
Mizrachi, Emek
Shaveh, Israel
12.
Toward a Decolonial and Denationalized Public Archaeology
Raphael
Greenberg, Tel Aviv University
13.
An Afterword on History, Archaeology and Heritage in Israel/Palestine
Emanuel
Pfoh
About the Author :
Raz Kletter is since 2009 Docent for Near Eastern Archaeology at Helsinki University. After
postdoctoral studies (Oxford UK, 1996), he worked in the IAA as Deputy of Finds Department, Senior Archaeologist, and Head of Scientific Processing (1990-2007). He directed and published many excavations in Israel/Palestine. Major excavation reports include Yavneh, The "Temple Hill" Repository Pit (two volumes, 2010, 2015); and Rishon le-Zion, the Middle Bronze Age Cemeteries (2018, Vols. 1a-b). Kletter is an authority of coroplastic art and religion (The Judean Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology of Asherah, Oxford 1996); economy (Economic Keystones, Sheffield 1998); and history of archaeology (Just Past? The Making of Israeli Archaeology, London 2006; and Archaeology, Heritage and Ethics in the Western Wall Plaza, London 2019).
Liora Kolska Horwitz is a prehistorian and archaeozoologist affiliated with the National
Natural History Collections of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on the cultural and biological interface between humans and their natural environment, with a special focus on animals. She has published extensively in international journals, conference proceedings and book chapters, in addition to editing monographs and special issues of journals. She is a member of the Negev Rock Art Center, co-editor of the Israel Journal of Prehistory, and participant in numerous field projects in Israel and South Africa, including co-directing the Wonderwerk Cave project (South Africa).
Emanuel Pfoh, Ph.D., is a researcher at the National Research Council (CONICET), Argentina, and at the Centre of Excellence "Ancient Near Eastern Empires", University of Helsinki, Finland. His publications include The Emergence of Israel in Ancient Palestine: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (Equinox, 2009), Anthropology and the Bible: Critical Perspectives (edited for Gorgias Press, 2010), The Politics of Israel's Past: The Bible, Archaeology and Nation-Building (co-edited with Keith W. Whitelam for Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2013), and T&T Clark Handbook of Anthropology and the Hebrew Bible (edited for Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2022). His research interests are the historical and political anthropology of Syria-Palestine in the Late Bronze Age, the history of Israel and Palestine in the first millennium BCE and the politics of biblical scholarship.
