A contentious West Bank archaeology conference in Jerusalem

POLITICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY: West Bank archaeology conference unearths controversy as politics takes center stage. Jerusalem event attracts hundreds, including dozens of scholars, but many in the field stay away and international participation is down; attendee calls event ‘highly politicized’ (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

Hundreds of people, including dozens of archaeology scholars affiliated with Israeli universities, on Wednesday attended the first day of a controversial academic conference devoted to antiquities in the West Bank.

Like its first edition, the second international “Archaeology and Site Conservation in Judea and Samaria” — the biblical name for the West Bank — is centered around presenting research and findings of archaeological work across the region, with sessions devoted to excavations in the Hebron area, the Judean Desert, Tel Shiloh and elsewhere. However, political controversies also took center stage at the conference, held at the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem.

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For more on that West Bank and Gaza antiquities bill, see here and links. The article notes the report that work on the bill has been paused by the Prime Minister. For more on the controversial nomination for the head of the IAA, see here and links. Archaeologist Aren Maier has appeared in many PaleoJudaica posts.

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