Palestinian Christians in the Mandate Department of Antiquities: History and Archaeology in a Colonial Space (original) (raw)
Related papers
British Archaeological Institutions in Mandatory Palestine, 1917–1948
Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 1999
A history of the principal British archaeological institutions in Jerusalem between the two Wars, i.e. between 1917 and 1948, is the subject of the present article. These institutions include the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem (BSAJ), the Department of Antiquities of Palestine (DAP) and the Palestine Archaeological Museum (PAM). The important contribution made by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), in establishing the BSAJ and in supporting excavations in Jerusalem, is also dealt with. The achievements of these institutions eventually led to a great deal of goodwill and co-operation with the other foreign archaeological institutions in Jerusalem at that time, particularly with the French and American Schools, and to the flourishing of internationally sponsored archaeological activities in the Holy Land. The British Mandate period is generally regarded as the formative 'Golden Age' of archaeology in Palestine.
2021 Archaeology of British Mandate Palestine
Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies, 2021
This double issue of JEMASH focuses on the archaeology of British Mandate Palestine. The guest editors are Benjamin Adam Saidel and Tali Erickson-Gini Here is a link to the table of contents. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.9.1-2.issue-1-2?refreqid=fastly-default%3Abac2f6671b586400ce72e2b9a07ca856
AABNER , 2023
The Antiquities Ordinance (Law) of 1920 was instrumental for the archaeology of Palestine in the British Mandate period. It also had significant influence, for many years, on the antiquities legislation of Jordan and Israel after 1948. This law has hardly been studied so far, except for one detail—the setting of the year 1700 CE for defining antiquities. Based on many as yet unpublished documents from several archives, I discuss in this article the complex origins of the 1920 Antiquities Law. Contrary to the current scholarly consensus, it was created by many agents (historians, archaeologists, legal experts, politicians, military men), working since 1918 in Egypt, Palestine, Britain, and the international peace conferences after World War I. The law was a compromise between the desire to facilitate the excavation, trade, and export of finds (for the benefit of Western institutions) and the wish to protect sites and keep finds in Palestine (for the benefit of local populations). The year 1700 CE was not a measure taken against protecting the area’s (late) Ottoman heritage, but a reasonable choice at a time when the discipline of historical archaeology did not exist yet.
The Palestine Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem, 1926-1938
‘To Aleppo Gone...’: Essays in honour of Jonathan N. Tubb (Archaeopress 2023): 179–182, 2023
The Palestine Archaeological Museum is one of the most significant landmarks in Jerusalem, located in a magnificent white limestone building opposite the north-east corner of the Old City walls. It was built by the British Mandatory Government of Palestine, with a generous contribution from John D. Rockefeller, Junior, the American financier and philanthropist. It houses a unique collection of thousands of antiquities unearthed in excavations carried out in Palestine during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. These are arranged in chronological order telling the story of Palestine from pre-historic times until the Ottoman period, spanning nearly 10,000 years of civilisation. A number of important articles have been devoted to the museum, but none has fully utilised the enormous body of documents on the museum at the Archive of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine (DAP) under the British Mandate (1919–1948). For this brief paper, I consulted selective documents in this archive to highlight some aspects of the funding, construction and collection of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, from its inception in 1926 until its opening in 1938.
Surveying the Land: Western Societies for the Exploration of Palestine
Science across the European Empires, 1800-1950, ed. by Benedikt Stuchtey, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005
The discipline of Palestine Studies, as described here, was territorial in the narrower and wider sense. It had a certain 'imperial' tinge, since these researches centred on a non-European area under Ottoman rule. Diplomacy and Europe's 'informal empire' in the Middle East provided the political-historical context for the exploration of Palestine. The institutionalization of research on Palestine in the last third of the nineteenth century marked a new stage in Western interest in the Holy Land. Any list of such institutions would have to be topped by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), founded in London in 1865. The PEF became a model that led to the founding of a number of similar European and American institutions.
British Archaeological Work in Jerusalem between 1865-1967: An Assessment
The main question dealt with in this paper is why the British, following the founding of the PEF in 1865, should have focused their archaeological work in Jerusalem and more specifically on the Temple Mount. Partly, it seems, there was a religious motivation at play, though strong attempts were indeed also made, particularly by Grove, to ensure that religious sentiments did not influence the thinking of explorers and that archaeological results were eventually presented impartially. This was possible primarily because of the fact that the early explorations were conducted by men from a disciplined military background, such as Wilson and Warren of the Royal Engineers, rather than by individuals from a scholarly or religious background. However, the desire to elucidate the Bible was very much stated as one of the principal objectives of the exploration activities from the outset.