Overview

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.

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9781800504820

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Author Information

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.

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