It is still not possible to conduct excavations in the Palestinian territories
06.10.2008
Archaeological treasures in the Palestinian territories could be lost forever if there is not a rapid change in the political climate in the region. This is the warning given by Professor Wolfgang Zwickel of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, an authority on the Holy Land. For almost ten years now, it has been practically impossible to conduct any archaeological research on the West Bank. While the second Intifada initially put a stop to any excavations, it is now the security barriers erected by the Israeli military which are preventing the continuation of work. Cooperating organizations, such as the Institute of Archaeology at the Palestinian Birzeit University, have since been closed and records of past excavations are no longer available. "We, as Europeans, need to face up to this challenge and take appropriate steps. Otherwise, important cultural assets that are also significant for European history and culture could be lost," states Zwickel.
Professor Zwickel is head of the Department of Old Testament and Biblical Archaeology at Mainz University and has been conducting archaeological excavations in the Middle East for nearly 25 years, for example, at the site of Bet-El, or "Bethel". "Bet-El is the second most frequently mentioned settlement in the Old Testament after Jerusalem," explains Zwickel. "The site was highly important - but we have next to no archaeological findings." Several years ago, Professor Zwickel had planned a major project in the region, the core of which was to have excavations on the site of the Biblical Bet-El. However, the project was killed off in its infancy by the second Intifada, which commenced in the autumn of 2000. All subsequent attempts to resuscitate the project have proven fruitless as the site about 20 kilometers north of Jerusalem on the West Bank is effectively inaccessible. "There is also a Byzantine church, built to commemorate the place where Abraham constructed an altar, together with a Crusader stronghold. These structures are high on the list of Palestinian monuments worth protecting, and we are still very interested in examining them," added Zwickel. The Catholic Church, as the owner of the site, would also be interested in seeing the excavations go ahead, as this would help demonstrate that the land is not meant for agricultural use. However, olive trees have already been planted in the surrounding fields.
This situation is not only frustrating from the academic point of view - as projects are planned, financed and then put on ice. But there is also the risk that illegal excavations and looting may occur in the meantime, so that valuable artefacts could be irretrievably lost. There is a further problem: Upcoming young academics are currently unable to obtain archaeological experience and know-how in this specialized field. This means that the subject, together with the knowledge about it, will also gradually become less highly regarded.
Important documentation on a previous excavation conducted in Birzeit under the supervision of Professor Zwickel has already disappeared. In 2000, he undertook the first German-Palestinian excavation in cooperation with the Institute of Archaeology of Birzeit University. It was the second Intifada that first put a stop to the project. But then the internationally renowned Institute of Archaeology of Birzeit University was closed. The work on the excavation report had to be put on hold and the records were no longer available. "Sadly, excavation always also means destruction - irreversible destruction," explains Zwickel. "It is for this reason that I considered it important to publish the excavation so that archaeologists working on the site in future would know what we have done."
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Fortunately, in this case, it was possible to prepare an excavation report using privately stored data and photographs. But the detailed stone-for-stone plans, drawings of ceramic finds and all excavation photos are no longer available. The results of the excavation - the finds were mainly the remains of Byzantine and Arab period structures - are to be published with the financial support of the Center for Intercultural Studies (ZIS) of Mainz University in an international yearbook and so preserved for future generations.
Wolfgang Zwickel studied Protestant Theology, Egyptology, Ancient Orientalism, Prehistory and Early History. His habilitation thesis was on temple cults in Canaan and Israel. He has occupied the Chair of Biblical Archaeology at Mainz University since 1998. Biblical Archaeology, a purely archaeological discipline, is concerned with the archaeology of the Holy Land. However, it does not consider itself restricted to the Biblical era, but covers a field ranging from the Neolithic period to the more recent past.