Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli SocietyArchaeology in Israel is truly a national obsession, a practice through which national identity—and national rights—have long been asserted. But how and why did archaeology emerge as such a pervasive force there? How can the practices of archaeology help answer those questions? In this stirring book, Nadia Abu El-Haj addresses these questions and specifies for the first time the relationship between national ideology, colonial settlement, and the production of historical knowledge. She analyzes particular instances of history, artifacts, and landscapes in the making to show how archaeology helped not only to legitimize cultural and political visions but, far more powerfully, to reshape them. Moreover, she places Israeli archaeology in the context of the broader discipline to determine what unites the field across its disparate local traditions and locations. Boldly uncovering an Israel in which science and politics are mutually constituted, this book shows the ongoing role that archaeology plays in defining the past, present, and future of Palestine and Israel. |
Contents
Excavating Archaeology | 1 |
Scientific Beginnings | 22 |
Instituting Archaeology | 45 |
Terrains of Settler Nationhood | 73 |
Positive Facts of Nationhood | 99 |
Excavating Jerusalem | 130 |
Extending Sovereignty | 163 |
Other editions - View all
Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning ... Nadia Abu El-Haj No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
Aharoni ancient antiquities Arab archaeological practice architectural argued argument artifacts Avigad basis biblical British building Burnt House Byzantine Canaanite century chaeological city's colonial commitments Conder contemporary culture debate destruction discipline distinct emphasis added empirical Eretz Yisrael ethnic evidence excavations fact fund's guides Hasmonean Hazor Hebrew Hebrew names heritage Herodian historical ibid identified Iron Age Israel Exploration Israeli archaeology Israelite Israelite settlement Jerusalem Jewish national Jewish Palestine Exploration Jewish Quarter Jews knowledge land maps material material-cultural Mazar ment modern monuments Moreover museum Muslim national-cultural nationalist nationhood objects Old City Palestine Exploration Fund Palestine Exploration Society Palestine's Palestinian particular past political pottery question religious remains scientific Second Temple secular settler social specific survey synagogue Tell Temple Mount territorial tion tour Tower Tower of David tradition tunnel Ultra-Orthodox Umayyad University Press Upper Galilee Va'adat ha-Shemot Western Wall words Yadin yedi at ha-Aretz Yishuv Zionist