Syro-Palestinian Archaeology - Archaeology in The West Bank

Archaeology in The West Bank

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the West Bank was annexed by Jordan (1950), and archaeological excavations in the region were carried out by its Department of Antiquities, as had been the case throughout the British Mandate in Palestine. Made up of Muslim and Christian officials and headed by the British archaeologist Gerald Lankaster Harding until 1956, field archaeology was conducted primarily by foreigners. Large-scale expeditions included those of the American Schools of Oriental Research at Tell Balata (1956–1964), the British School of Archaeology at Jericho (1952–1958), and the École Biblique at Tell el-Farah (1946–1960) and Khirbet Qumran (1951–1956). Rising nationalistic pressures led to Harding's dismissal in 1956 and thereafter, the Department of Antiquities was headed by Jordanian nationals.

After Israel's military occupation of the West Bank in the 1967 war, all antiquities in the area came under the control of the Archaeological Staff Officer. Though the Hague Convention prohibits the removal of cultural property from militarily occupied areas, both foreign and Israeli archaeologists mounted extensive excavations that have been criticized as overstepping the bounds of legitimate work to protect endangered sites. Vast amounts of new archaeological data have been uncovered in these explorations, although critics say that "relatively little effort was made to preserve or protect archaeological remains from the later Islamic and Ottoman periods, which were of direct relevance to the areas Muslim and Christian inhabitants."

In the early 20th century, Palestinians focused on investigating Palestinian folklore and customs. In 1920, the Palestine Oriental Society was founded by Muslim and Christian Palestinians, most prominently among them Tawfiq Canaan. The work of this society was more ethnographic and anthropological than archaeological. Interest in archaeological fieldwork increased as West Bank universities emerged in the 1980s and cultivated a new approach to Palestinian archaeology. A new generation of Palestinian graduate students and foreign archaeologists, like Albert Glock, introduced innovations to the field by studying Islamic and Ottoman period ruins in village contexts. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, Palestinian archaeologists have been able to conduct their own fieldwork and digs at sites located within Area A of the West Bank, though access to Areas B and C remains restricted.