Community Archaeology before Community Archaeology? Dhahr el-Mazra‘a (Nahariya) and Kfar Bar’am
Community Archaeology in Israel/Palestine - Raz Kletter
Raz Kletter [+]
University of Helsinki
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).
Description
This article is a study of a unique excavation undertaken in 1941 in Nahariya, a town on the northern coast of Israel/Palestine (then under the British Mandate). In a sense, it was community archaeology before “community archaeology”. I review the nature of this excavation, try to identify all the volunteers who took part in it, and discuss its results. I also compare it to an initiative of Palestinian villagers at nearby Kfar Bar‘am, aimed at taking care of the ancient synagogue there. The discussion leads to a broad definition of community archaeology, namely, the archaeology of a past community, by a living community, for a living community.