Framing Archaeology in the Near East - The Application of Social Theory to Fieldwork - Ianir Milevski

Framing Archaeology in the Near East - The Application of Social Theory to Fieldwork - Ianir Milevski

Biblical Archaeology, Processualism, Post-Processualism and Beyond

Framing Archaeology in the Near East - The Application of Social Theory to Fieldwork - Ianir Milevski

Ianir Milevski [+-]
Israel Antiquities Authority
Ianir Milevski is a Senior Research Archaeologist at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Corresponding Researcher in the National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET). He has also been visiting lecturer at several universities in Argentina as part of the “Raíces” program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of that country. Until recently he was Head of the Prehistoric Branch of the IAA. His research focused on the socio-economic processes of the late prehistory of the southern Levant utilizing a historical materialistic viewpoint. In the last few years his main research concentrates on cultural heritage issues, archaeological theory and the art history of the Levantine prehistory and protohistory. He has produced more than 150 articles and chapters in books, and 15 authored and edited volumes.
Bernardo Gandulla
Universidad de Buenos Aires

Description

Archaeology rise in the southern Levant strongly related to Biblical studies and religious-political interests that accompanied the European presence in the Orient. During the first half of the 20th century, archaeology was intensely developed as a scientific discipline though Biblical bias still existed among researchers. A short evaluation of Biblical Archaeology is offered here integrating also the historical context in which this discipline rose and flourished. Archaeology in Israel was utilized as a means of unifying or creating “national” myths which connect the past with the present. Over the years, new archaeological streams influenced Israeli and other researchers working in the southern Levant, mostly related with the Processualist currents emerging in America. In the 1960s these currents put the accent more on economic, social and technological aspects of archaeology than on the traditional political aspects related to Biblical studies. The social and political developments in Israel and the Middle East in the 1990s were the framework of Post-processualist viewpoints, related mostly with European tendencies attested in the archaeology of these countries. The main accent here was put on the importance of human ideas and initiatives in the social developments and to a lesser degree on technology or the ecological characteristics of ancient societies. In the archaeology of Israel questions of identities, gender and control were registered in the archaeological research. Other archaeological practices such as “communal archaeology” also appear on the archaeological horizon. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict greatly influenced that horizon as well. The goal of this paper is to analyze these developments in the framework of the history of the region.

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Citation

Milevski , Ianir ; Gandulla, Bernardo . Biblical Archaeology, Processualism, Post-Processualism and Beyond. Framing Archaeology in the Near East - The Application of Social Theory to Fieldwork. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 123-140 Dec 2016. ISBN 9781781796351. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=26361. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.26361. Dec 2016

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