Community Archaeology in Israel/Palestine
Edited by
Raz Kletter [+–]
University of Helsinki
Raz Kletter completed his PhD at Tel Aviv University. He is an archaeologist of the Bronze and Iron Ages Southern Levant, focusing on religion, economy, identity, and the history of archaeology. He directed and published excavations from varied periods for the Israel Antiquities Authority and is currently a member of the Centre of Excellence Ancient Near Eastern Empires at the University of Helsinki, Finland. His extensive publishing record includes Just Past: The History of Israeli Archaeology (London, Equinox, 2006); and Archaeology, Heritage and Ethics in the Western Wall Plaza, Jerusalem: Darkness at the End of the Tunnel (New York & London: Routledge, 2019).
Liora Kolska Horwitz [+–]
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Liora Kolska Horwitz, Ph.D., is a freelance researcher affiliated with the National Natural
History Collections of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and previously worked as zooarchaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority. She co-directs research at Wonderwerk Cave (South Africa) and has collaborated on numerous research and field projects in Israel spanning the Lower Paleolithic to historical periods, including research of destroyed Palestinian villages. She has published over 400 academic papers and co-edited monographs such as Holon a Lower Paleolithic Site in Israel(2007, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University) and Faces from the Past. Diachronic Patterns in the Biology and Health Status of Human Populations in the Eastern Mediterranean (2007, Oxford: BAR International Series No. 1603) as well as several special issues of journals dedicated to topics relating to paleoenvironment, human-animal relations and archaeology.
History Collections of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and previously worked as zooarchaeologist for the Israel Antiquities Authority. She co-directs research at Wonderwerk Cave (South Africa) and has collaborated on numerous research and field projects in Israel spanning the Lower Paleolithic to historical periods, including research of destroyed Palestinian villages. She has published over 400 academic papers and co-edited monographs such as Holon a Lower Paleolithic Site in Israel(2007, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University) and Faces from the Past. Diachronic Patterns in the Biology and Health Status of Human Populations in the Eastern Mediterranean (2007, Oxford: BAR International Series No. 1603) as well as several special issues of journals dedicated to topics relating to paleoenvironment, human-animal relations and archaeology.
Emanuel Pfoh [+–]
CONICET & University of Helsinki
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.
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 or the Southern Levant in general. 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.
Series: Discourses in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
