Levantine archaeology

Levantine archaeology is the archaeological study of the Levant. It is also known as Syro-Palestinian
archaeology or Palestinian archaeology (particularly when the area of inquiry centers on ancient
Palestine. Besides its importance to the discipline of Biblical archaeology, the Levant is highly
important when forming an understanding of the history of the earliest peoples of the Stone Age.

Current archaeological digs in Israel are carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and in
the areas governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), by its Ministry of Tourism and Antiquity,
working under the auspices of the IAA. The Palestinian Authority prohibits unrestricted excavation at
sites of archaeological importance. There are equivalent and similarly named authorities in Jordan
and in Cyprus, a Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Syria and a department of the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Turkey).

Photo: Jerycho

Politics of archaeology in Israel and Palestine

The politics of archaeology in Israel and Palestine refers to the significance of archaeology in the
politics and social fabric of Israel and Palestine. Many important developments in Levantine
archaeology have occurred within Israel and Palestine.
Before 1946, the Department of Antiquities of the British administration of Mandatory Palestine was
jointly staffed by citizens of the United Kingdom, Arabs, and Jews. After the creation of the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the state of Israel, the Department was split into several smaller
departments. According to Hallote and Joffe, Israel's Department of Antiquities and Museums
"attracted relatively little attention from religious Jews," and a 1950s excavation of burial caves at
Beth She'arim "did not elicit a great response from religious groups." Israel also organized its
archaeological activities so as to position the country's high culture on a global stage. The
politicization of archaeology, which Hallote and Joffe attribute to "popular interest of religious
nationalist groups," did not begin in earnest until after the Six-Day War.

Yadin and Masada

Yigael Yadin, a professor of archaeology at Hebrew University, had previously been the second Chief
of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. As an archaeologist, in 1960, he discovered papyrus scrolls
written by Simon Bar Kokhba, leader of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt. The find was kept secret for a month,
before being revealed at a ceremony attended by various Israeli leaders and the international media.
A subsequent Yadin lecture at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv attracted around three-thousand
people.

Beginning in October 1963, Yadin led excavations at Masada, which currently serves as the swearing-
in site of new Israeli Defense Forces soldiers. Personnel and resources were provided by the Army
during the digs; the first ended in May 1964, and the second lasted from November 1964 to April
1965. Upon publishing his findings, Yadin commented on the religious and political relevance of the
site, calling it "an undying symbol of desperate courage, a symbol which has stirred hearts
throughout the last nineteen centuries."

The excavations were noted worldwide, and Yadin parlayed his new fame into a political career,
eventually becoming deputy Prime Minister to Menachem Begin. Nachman Ben-Yehuda later argued
that Yadin discredited Josephus' assertion that the rebels in Masada were Sicarii. Yehuda charged
that Yadin "certainly used his very high credibility" as a veteran and professor "to bulldoze his
overhauled version of Josephus Flavius concerning the events at Masada." Abraham Rabinovich
credits the later excavations for "opening the way for the desert mount's becoming a major tourist
site."
 Photo: Masada Archaeological site

According to the archaeologist Albert Glock, archaeology has been used selectively by both Christian
and Jewish Zionists to reconstruct a version of Palestine consonant with their respective ideologues
and to provide a warrant for occupying the country.

Almost 60% of the West Bank's cultural archaeological heritage the lies in Area C, which falls under
full Israeli control. Israel does not allow Palestinian institutes to explore, and safeguard this heritage
with the result that much of the area is subject to sacking. According to the Palestinian Department
of Antiquites and Cultural Heritage upwards of 120,000 objects are smuggled out of Palestine.
Plundering of sites has increased dramatically on each occasion when an intifada broke out, closing
off Israel to Palestinian labour. The groundwork is done by Palestinian looters, and the results
funneled through Jerusalem, the main transit point for Palestinian middlemen offloading the wares
on the Israeli antiquities market. Many looters regard these sites as "negative heritage" since were it
retrieved it would not remain in the West Bank as part of Palestinian cultural heritage.

Israeli archaeology in the West Bank has focused on the Biblical remains to the exclusion of the
ancient pagan, Christian Byzantine and Muslim strata. Some sites of no Jewish relevance are left to
decay. The important prehistoric archaeological site the Shuqba cave was separated from the
Palestinian villager of Shuqba from which it took its name, and the Wadi Natuf area became a
dumping site full of garbage and litter or was crossed by a settlement road, with an exit ramp to
allow trucks from settlements to offload their waste there. Many Palestinian heritage sites within the
West Bank have been added to the Jewish heritage list. Notable examples where West Bank cultural
properties have been expropriated wholly or in part from Palestinian control are the Herodium,
Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Rachel's Tomb and the Tomb of Jesse
and Ruth in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. Qumran is in the West Bank but entirely controlled by Israeli
authorities, and Israeli advertisement abroad have suggested that the site is in Israel.Israeli
authorities have justified this by pointing out that they are ensuring freedom of worship and
protecting the integrity of the sites. Even so, worship is limited. For example, Jewish worship at
Joseph’s Tomb is only conducted once a month, from midnight to 6 am. Worship at Rachel’s Tomb is
only possible because of a highly fortified concrete barriers. Joseph’s Tomb was torched hours after
the IDF evacuated the site in 2000.

Photo: Beth She'arim

Religious opposition to certain archaeological practices in Israel began in the late 1970s and
intensified through the 1980s. Objections were raised to the excavation of the City of David in
Jerusalem, for which project director Yigal Shiloh was publicly vilified. The situation escalated in 1981
when members of several different religious sects threw stones at archaeologists at the site. The
confrontation, led by Shlomo Goren and Ovadia Yosef, resulted from the sects' allegation that the
excavation was affecting a Jewish cemetery (which Hallote and Joffe claim did not exist).Education
Minister Zevulun Hammer eventually ordered the excavation to be halted, but the High Court of
Israel overturned his decision. Throughout the 1980s, activists identifying with the ultra-Orthodox
Haredi movement were supported by Toldot Aharon and Agudat Israel in clashes at archaeological
sites. Notably, in 1983, activists in Jerusalem damaged archaeologists' offices and graves in which
archaeologists were buried.

By 1987, protests had reached American excavations at Caesarea. Archaeological operations were
curtailed by the start of the First Intifada later that year. In 1992 a Greek mosaic was damaged in
retaliation for the discovery of a crypt containing human bones under an Armenian church.

Operation Scroll

"Operation Scroll" is the term for a 1993 effort by the Israeli Antiquities Authority to discover more
of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judean Desert. Several archaeologists searched between Wadi ed-
Daliya and Nahal Deregot, surveying six hundred and fifty caves and sites, and ultimately excavating
seventy of them. The earliest finds were from the Neolithic era, and there were many artifacts
unearthed from the time of Bar Kokhba. At approximately the same time as this operation, the Oslo
Accords were being written; the IAA was subsequently criticized for taking advantage of the timing.
In November 1993, ultra-Orthodox Jews rioted in Jerusalem in response to archaeologists' allegedly
excavating Jewish graves. Demonstrations in the city were organized by the Atra Kadisha religious
group. Operation Scroll came under fire for possibly defying a new agreement reached by Israel and
the Palestinian Liberation Organization regarding Palestinian self-rule, and may have circumvented a
United Nations resolution that prohibited unearthing and removal of significant artifacts from
occupied areas under foreign control.
Photo: City of David
Controversy

In an archaeological context, animosity has existed between Israeli journalists and officials and their
Palestinian counterparts, particularly from the 1990s into the 2010s. In a 1992 article in Ha'aretz,
Israeli journalist Yosi Torpstein examined what he called "the large-scale theft of antiquities" by
Palestinian looters. American academic Nadia Abu El Haj describes "Operation Scroll," a 1993
"salvage excavation" in Jericho that was launched in advance of Israel's pullout from the West Bank
town. Abu El Haj's 2001 book Facts on the Ground was released to some controversy; archaeologist
Alexander H. Joffe published a highly-critical review in which he described Abu El Haj's methods as
"schizophrenic" and asserted that the book is "a representation of Israeli archaeology that is simply
bizarre." Facts on the Ground won the Albert Hourani Book Award for 2002.

Several sites of archaeological significance have been targeted in apparent price tag attacks in the
region, which have allegedly been carried out by what Ha'aretz termed "Hard-line Jewish youths." In
December 2011, arsonists attempted to set a Palestinian mosque on fire in the West Bank, near
Ariel. Palestinian witnesses reported that Israeli settlers were responsible for the predawn attack, in
which several of the mosque's windows were broken and its entrance sustained burns. One week
later, the Nebi Akasha Mosque in central Jerusalem was burned. The mosque, located in an Ultra-
Orthodox neighborhood, was built in the 12th century and expanded in the 13th century. It was
reportedly built on a burial ground for soldiers allied with Saladin. In September 2012, graffiti was
sprayed on a mosque in Dura, near Hebron. The vandalism referred to the then-recent evacuation of
the Migron settlement in the West Bank. Vandals attempted to burn down the mosque and nearby
vehicles.
Photo: Nebi Akasha mosque Jerusalem