Terra Incognita: The great archeology debate

A persistent discussion about the politicization of Israeli archeology.


Seth J. Frantzman
Terra Incognita/JPost
20 July '10

At a recent International Geography Conference in Tel Aviv, Deborah Cvikel of the University of Haifa’s Recanti Institute of Maritime Studies unveiled her latest work on 19th-century naval battles off Acre.

In the course of her study she had carried out groundbreaking research, alongside Dr. Ya’acov Kahanov, on a shipwreck inside the ancient harbor of Acre. It is postulated that this wreck may be related to the naval bombardments by the Egyptians in 1831 or British in 1840.

The unique research into maritime archeology being pioneered at the University Haifa is part of the larger interest archeologists inevitably express in the Holy Land and its long history. But since the 2007 dustup over the granting of tenure to Nadia Abu el-Haj at Barnard, there has been a persistent debate about the supposed politicization of Israeli archeology. The infamous case of Haj concerned the typical circle: Anti-Israel polemics passed off as scholarship, condemnation by pro- Israel supporters, accusations of freedom of speech being threatened and finally the legitimization of the anti-Israel polemic in the name of protecting free speech.

According to one interpretation, archeology in Israel is not a discipline or a science but rather purely political. The sites chosen to be excavated and illuminated, according to one critic, “have been selectively co-opted by the Israeli government in order to strengthen its claims to the land.” Yael Zerubavel of Rutgers noted in 1995 that “archeology thus becomes a national tool through which Israelis can recover their roots in the ancient past and the ancient homeland.”

Keith Whitelam’s pretentious 1997 The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History argues that Israel was “invented by scholars in the image of a European nation state; one that resembles the State of Israel created in 1948.” Terje Oestigaard of the University of Bergen claims in Political Archeology and Holy Nationalism that Israel’s interest in its history is akin to “the distortions and false claims made by the Nazi archeologists.” Comparing Israel to the Nazis is par for the course of scholarly anti-Israel hate speech. Disparaging Israel’s connection to the land has even spawned an entire school of archeology called the Copenhagen School, populated by such scholars as Niels Peter Lemche and Thomas Thompson.

Another critic is Knox College’s Danielle Steen Fatkin, author of National Building and Archeological Narrative in the West Bank (2002). A recipient of an Albright Institute fellowship (funded partly by the US National Endowment for the Humanities), she carried out research in Israel but her most recent work has been in Jordan. The same scholar who condemns Israel’s “national mythologizing run amok” waxes eloquent about how “developing a coherent national identity is vitally important not just for creating at least a fiction of Palestinian unity, but important also for the presentation of Palestinian needs to the international community.”

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Whose Jerusalem? Latest Discovery Makes Plain Ancient Jewish Ties

Jonathan Tobin
Contentions/Commentary
22 February '10

The greatest threat to the hopes of those who think parts of Jerusalem should be off-limits to Jews comes not when Jewish-owned buildings go up in the city, but rather when Jews start digging into the ground of East Jerusalem. Because the more the history of the city is uncovered, the less credible becomes the charge that Jews are alien colonists in what the media sometimes wrongly refer to as “traditionally Palestinian” or “Arab” Jerusalem.

That’s the upshot from the release of an amazing archeological dig conducted just outside Jerusalem’s Old City. The excavations conducted by archeologist Eilat Mazar in the Ophel area revealed a section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem. According to the press release from the Hebrew University, under whose auspices the project was carried out, the dig uncovered the wall as well as an inner gatehouse for entry into the royal quarter of the ancient city and an additional royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse as well as a corner tower. While ancient buildings are not uncommon in the city, the significance of this discovery is the fact that these edifices can be dated to the 10th century before the Common Era — the time of King Solomon, credited by the Bible for the construction of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Pottery found at the lowest levels of the dig is dated to this era.

Even more telling is the fact that bullae — seal impressions — with Hebrew names were found, as well as seal impressions on jar handles inscribed with the words “to the king,” which means they were employed by the Israelite state in that time. Inscriptions on the jars, which Mazar says are the largest ever found in Jerusalem, showed them to be the property of a royal official.

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Related: Hebrew U. archaeologist discovers Jerusalem city wall possibly built by King Solomon
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Hebrew U. archaeologist discovers Jerusalem city wall possibly built by King Solomon

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
News release
IMRA
22 February '10

Jerusalem, February 22, 2010 - A section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. - possibly built by King Solomon -- has been revealed in archaeological excavations directed by Dr. Eilat Mazar and conducted under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The section of the city wall revealed, 70 meters long and six meters high, is located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial section of the adjacent Kidron valley.



The excavations in the Ophel area were carried out over a three-month period with funding provided by Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman, a New York couple interested in Biblical Archeology. The funding supports both completion of the archaeological excavations and processing and analysis of the finds as well as conservation work and preparation of the site for viewing by the public within the Ophel Archaeological Park and the national park around the walls of Jerusalem.

The excavations were carried out in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the Company for the Development of East Jerusalem. Archaeology students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as volunteer students from the Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma, and hired workers all participated in the excavation work.

"The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering", Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley.

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Israel Protests Exclusion from Int'l Archeological Conference in Ramallah

Gil Hoffman and Josiah Daniel Ryan
JPost
13 August 09

The Israel Antiquities Authority condemned the World Archeological Congress on Wednesday for holding an international conference in Ramallah dedicated to "overcoming structural violence" and the negative impact of politics on archeology.

In a fiercely worded letter to the congress's president, IAA deputy director Dr. Uzi Dahari accused the organization of excluding Israelis, not informing the IAA of the event in advance, and allowing an academic forum to be used for political propaganda against Israel.

"We remind you that this is a conference organized by the World Archeological Congress, and not a Palestinian archeological organization," Dahari wrote. "This requires you to make it universal. The omission to include or invite Israeli speakers to address issues that directly affect their daily work shows that this conference is certainly not that."

He continued, "We need not remind you that one of the principles governing the WAC is the promotion of dialogue between archeologists, but this conference is a monologue that fails to live up to these basic ideals."

Dahari said the conference's program was full of condemnations of Israeli archeology, with "huge numbers of inaccuracies" and accusations of "insidious past-mastering" that made the conference into "little more than a political demonstration."

He also condemned the congress for visiting the Temple Mount and City of David Archeological Park in Jerusalem on Wednesday without coordinating with the IAA, even though the cultural heritage of Jerusalem is under Israeli auspices according to international law.

He said it was unethical and unprofessional to visit active archeological sites without informing the archeologists charged with the excavation.

WAC president Claire Smith responded that Israeli archeologists had not been intentionally excluded from the conference and that it had been widely advertised. She said there had been a misperception that Israeli archeologists would not be permitted to go to Ramallah to attend the event, and that a videoconference to allow Israeli participation had been attempted, but had not succeeded.

"The tours are being led by highly respected Palestinian and Israeli archeologists," she wrote to Dahari. "These tours are to public areas and do not include visiting active archeological excavations. They're timed so that delegates are free to gain additional knowledge through taking the normal paid tours. However, if you would like to send someone to provide an additional perspective, you would be welcome to do so."

Smith said the decision to hold the conference in Ramallah stemmed from past problems with archeologists being refused visas to attend the WAC's events in Washington and because Palestinians had difficulties getting visas to many countries. She said she intended to host a follow-up conference in which both Israeli and Palestinian archeologists could participate.

"Since it is difficult for Palestinian archeologists to interact with the international community, we decided to bring members of the international community to Palestinian archeologists," Smith said.

Dr. Mahmoud Hawari, an Oxford University research associate who attended the conference, suggested that Israeli archeologists had been aware of the event but decided to boycott it and then complain about not being invited.

Hawari was one of 20 WAC members who visited the City of David on a tour led by Dr. Raphael Greenberg, a senior archeology lecturer at Tel Aviv University, who is known to be a vocal critic of the site.
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