Recent archaeology in Palestine: achievements and future goals

Abstract

There has been a veritable explosion of archaeological activity in Israel since the 1967 war. With the temporary acquisition of new lands major new surveys were conducted in Sinai, the Golan Heights, and in Judaea and Samaria. Most of the results of these activities have been published internally within the structure of the Israel Antiquities Authority and informally in Hebrew, though several surveys have been published in English. The serious student of Palestinian archaeology can make much of this material providing she or he has access to the original files of the Antiquities Authority, where all reports are deposited and recorded. The Israel Antiquities Authority and its museums publish a schedule of archaeological sites in its gazetteer, Yalqut Ha-pirsumim . The schedule is a legal document used by the Authority to declare archaeological sites subject to protection against destruction by such things as vandalism or building or agricultural projects. The present list, published on 18 May 1964, is mainly the Hebrew translation of ‘The Provisional Schedule of Historical Sites and Monuments’ first published in The Palestine Official Gazette on 15 June 1929, and then updated on 24 November 1944, by the British Mandatary government. Containing only the names of sites within the so-called Green Line – that is, within the pre-1967 borders of Israel – the list has been corrected and repeatedly updated since its original publication and is now available on computer as a database at the Israel Antiquities Authority. Because it records the history of site names since the survey of the Palestine Exploration Fund in the nineteenth century, this publication can be very helpful for site identification.