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News [Articles Archive]
Elad's Involvement in Archaeological Sites and Projects in East Jerusalem
Emek Shaveh, Emek ShavehMay 16, 2013 Right-wing group takes IDF soldiers on tour of East Jerusalem
Amos Harel, HaaretzMay 8, 2013 Jerusalem’s “What Me Worry“ Archaeology
Raphael Greenberg, The Bible and InterpretationMay 4, 2013 Exhibition on loan: How Israel's cultural institutions contribute to occupation
Yonathan Mizrachi, 972 MagazineApril 25, 2013 Jordanian-Palestinian lobbying at UNESCO ‘pushes Israel to accept Jerusalem expert mission’
Hani Hazaimeh, The Jordan TimesApril 24, 2013 Israel to allow UNESCO inspections in Jerusalem after Palestinians agree to pull damning resolutions
Barak Ravid, HaaretzApril 19, 2013 Archaeology in the service of the right
Haaretz Editorial , HaaretzApril 15, 2013 Israel heritage plan exposes discord over West Bank history
Raffi Berg, BBC News
Sunday, Jun 23rd at 16.00 |
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Jerusalem began as a small village in a place known as the City of David where the Palestinian village of Silwan sits today. Buried under the village lands, 5000 years of history bind the stories of ancient nations and rulers with the present life of the local residents. Dozens of excavated archaeological strata tell the complex multi-cultural saga of Jerusalem.
Frequent Q&A about Jerusalem's Old City
Q: Why not have each religion – Jewish, Christian, and Muslim – care for its own heritage?A: As in every historical city, periods and cultures in the Old City of Jerusalem are intertwined, above the surface as well as below. There are those who would wish to promote the existence of an authentic Jewish Jerusalem hidden beneath the Muslim city; one that can be accessed in the tunnels of the ‘City of David’ and the Western Wall. But that is an illusion: the vaults and tunnels are not all of the same time, and most are modern creations, made up of Ottoman period cisterns, Mamluk vaults, and rock-cut installations of Roman date or earlier.
A denominational division might work for religious buildings (and even those are often shared). But archaeology needs, on the one hand, the protection of ‘color-blind’ legislation (which doesn’t value one culture over another), and on the other – the protection afforded by a mutual respect for heritage based on the understanding that buildings and ancient remains might have different significance for different people, and that their mere age does not determine their value.
"Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past." (George Orwell, 1984)
A denominational division might work for religious buildings (and even those are often shared). But archaeology needs, on the one hand, the protection of ‘color-blind’ legislation (which doesn’t value one culture over another), and on the other – the protection afforded by a mutual respect for heritage based on the understanding that buildings and ancient remains might have different significance for different people, and that their mere age does not determine their value.
| more Q&A » |
"Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past." (George Orwell, 1984)
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Clay icon from the Execration Texts in Egypt, 20th-19th Century BCE. The city of Rosh-ramen or Roshlamem associated with the earliest mention of Jerusalem appears on the icon’s torso © Royal Museums of Art and History – Brussels |
