Archaeology, Heritage and Ethics in the Western Wall Plaza, Jerusalem
This volume is a critical study of recent archaeology in the Western Wall Plaza area, Jerusalem. Considered one of the holiest places on Earth for Jews and Muslims, it is also a place of controversy, where the State marks our remains for preservation and adoration and theirs for silencing.
Based on thousands of documents from the Israel Antiquities Authority and other sources, such as protocols of planning committees, readers can explore for the first time this archaeological heart of darkness in East Jerusalem. The book follows a series of unique discoveries, reviewing the approval and execution of development plans and excavations, and the use of the sites once excavation has finished. Who decides what and how to excavate, what to preserve or remove? Who pays for the archaeology, for what aims? The professional, scientific archaeology of the past happens now: it modifies the present and is modified by it. This book excavates the archaeology of East Jerusalem to reveal its social and political contexts, power structures and ethics.
Readers interested in the history, archaeology and politics of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict will find this book useful, as well as scholars and students of the history and ethics of archaeology, Jerusalem, conservation, nationalism and heritage.
Raz Kletter completed his PhD in 1995 at Tel Aviv University, Israel, on material culture and borders of Iron Age Judah. Following a post-doctoral year at the University of Oxford, UK, he worked in the Israel Antiquities Authority as Deputy of Finds Department, Senior Archaeologist and Head of the Scientific Processing Unit. Dr. Kletter participated, directed and published excavations from varied periods and sites in Israel/Palestine. Since 2008 he is Docent for Near-Eastern Archaeology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and member of the Centres of Excellence Changes in Sacred texts and Traditions (CSTT) and Ancient Near Eastern Empires (ANEE). Dr. Kletters main fields of study are Near-Eastern Archaeology (Bronze and Iron Ages), religion and cult, ancient economy, archaeological theory and history of archaeology in Israel/Palestine. He has published extensively in these fields.
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General Editors: Ingrid Hjelm, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Emanuel Pfoh, National Research Council, Argentina
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www.routledge.com/Copenhagen-International-Seminar/book-series/COPSEM
Archaeology, Heritage and Ethics in the Western Wall Plaza, Jerusalem
Darkness at the End of the Tunnel
Raz Kletter
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2020 Raz Kletter
The right of Raz Kletter to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kletter, Raz, author.
Title: Archaeology, heritage and ethics in the Western Wall Plaza, Jerusalem : darkness at the end of the tunnel / Raz Kletter.
Description: First edition. | New York : Routledge, [2019] |
Series: Copenhagen international seminar |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019016898 (print) | LCCN 2019017777 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780429031311 (ebook) | ISBN 9780429633461 (web pdf) |
ISBN 9780429630484 (mobi/kindle) | ISBN 9780429631979 (epub) |
ISBN 9780367143350 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Excavations (Archaeology)West Bank. |
Excavations (Archaeology)Jerusalem.
Classification: LCC DS110.W47 (ebook) |
LCC DS110.W47 K64 2019 (print) | DDC 956.94/42dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019016898
ISBN: 978-0-367-14335-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-03131-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
Detroit training city at night (video and prints, work by Amir Yatziv, 2009).
Photo Amir Yatziv
In February 2016, a friend and I visited the City of David. Like most tourists we came to see exciting archaeological attractions. Unlike most tourists, we did not look just for King David, and walked a little farther into Silwan than the El-Ad visitor centre. Without a guide from El-Ad, the extreme settler organization that controls the City of David site, we did not have someone to tell us what to see: a present not less mysterious than the past. Archaeologists offer the past in scientific reports, popular articles, exhibitions wrapped and detached from the present by clean photos and professionally drawn plans. But archaeology does not happen in a void; we need to see it without cutting the surroundings out.
Currently, the Givati parking site ().
