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Israel and Palestine, UNESCO

Archaeology to Help Broker Middle East Peace

Archaeology is often seen as the dusty realm of old men in libraries, occasionally venturing outside with their wide brimmed hats and brushes. However archaeology is much more than that, always has been, and is now proving to be a massive help in the Middle East peace project. 

You would have to have been living underneath a rock – preferably in Australia – to have gone without hearing about the tensions between Israel and Palestine. I won’t get in to a long treatise on the problems, but needless to say, neither is overly happy with their current living arrangements.

For the past five years, a pair of archaeologists have been working tirelessly to create an agreement between the two nations regarding the disposition of the region’s archaeological treasures if and when a Palestine is ever created.

Ran Boytner, a University of California, Los Angeles archaeologist and Lynn Swartz Dodd, an archaeologist at the University of Southern California, have guided a team of prominent Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists in creating this document that, in reality, could help push forward a peace treaty.

“Israelis and Palestinians never previously had sat down to achieve a structured, balanced agreement to govern the region’s archaeological heritage,” said Dodd, a lecturer in religion and curator of USC’s Archaeological Research Collection. “Our group got together with the vision of a future when people wouldn’t be at each other’s throats and archaeology would need to be protected, irrespective of which side of the border it falls on.”

“We’re talking about putting your precious archaeological heritage — things you believe your ancestors created — in the hands of what you now consider to be your enemy,” Dodd said. “We’re asking enemies to become partners.”

But the question still remains, I imagine, how can archaeology help push forward a peace agreement. Surely it is just dealing with old relics.

If the above comment from Dodd didn’t sell you on the importance of rightfully putting archaeological history in the right hands, then maybe this will help explain.

“According to international law, if there is a future Palestinian state, the Israelis will have to return all archaeological artifacts to the Palestinian state,” said Boytner, director for international research at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. “That, for the [Israeli] right wing, would be a major rallying point to oppose the peace process. Therefore, archaeology could be a deal-breaker in future peace negotiations. But if we can deal with archaeology, we can help create a stable peace process that will be respected by both sides for years to come.”

The 39-point document doesn’t lay out any specific disposition of artifacts or sites, but it does wield mighty implications. Depending on how the borders are eventually drawn by diplomats, certain locations could be impacted.

Sites such as a religious compound that is thought to have been involved in the writing of the now famous Dead Sea Scrolls, the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, ie, Samaria, and an important site known as Mount Ebal, that is believed to be the spot where the Old Testament leader Joshua built an altar to the Jewish God in thanks for allowing the Israelites to cross the river Jordan and enter the “Promised Land.”

Among the document’s specific recommendations:

* Repatriation of artifacts excavated since 1967 in the Occupied Territories to the state in which they were originally found. Currently, the Israeli Archaeological Authority and the archaeology staff officer of the Israeli military’s Civil Administration maintain control of all archaeological material excavated in Israel and some from the West Bank.

* More than tripling of the footprint of that part of Jerusalem that would qualify for special protections as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to include the city’s boundaries during the 10th century, or roughly the era of the Crusades. Currently, such status extends to a one-third-square-mile area that includes the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and the walls of Jerusalem’s more than 2,000-year-old Old City.

* Ceding control over archaeological sites and artifacts to the state in which they reside and prohibiting the destruction of archaeological sites because of their cultural or religions affiliations. Currently, archaeological authorities on both sides of the conflict have been accused of being less careful about protecting and excavating archaeological sites and artifacts from cultures that are not their own.

* Consideration of archaeological sites that will straddle future international borders proposed under a peace plan to ensure that these borders do not divide or harm archaeological remains.

* Support for the establishment of museums, labs and storehouses for the protection, study and care of archaeological heritage where they currently do not exist, so that repatriation of materials to territories occupied by Israel in 1967 does not stall for the lack of such facilities.

“These are the principles that we need to govern how we address and preserve archaeological heritage that’s of interest to both sides, irrespective of what border it falls within,” Dodd said.

For those of us who enjoy archaeology, it is nice to see it gain such high prominence.