Archaeology Under Fire: Exacavating in Today’s Middle East

“You can’t go to the Middle East now!” “Won’t your family be scared?” “What about liability insurance for all those volunteers?”

Last year, archaeology aficionados heard these sentiments from family, friends and colleagues. The tense standoff between Israelis and Palestinians created enough uncertainty that many directors postponed their excavations.

Archaeologists mount excavations in the Middle East for many reasons: pressing research agendas, awareness that many places in Israel and Jordan are safe most of the time, academic requirements that faculty be engaged in their fields—and the personal pleasure of doing what they really like during the summer. But in 2002 the obstacles to excavating seemed daunting.

I was a grateful recipient of a fellowship that placed me in Amman, Jordan for six months before the beginning of our excavation season last year. Like all digs in the Middle East, our excavation at the Madaba Plains Project—`Umayri was jeopardized by the perception of danger that staff and potential volunteers shared, even though Jordan was entirely safe throughout my stay.

Nevertheless, our excavation team in 2002 was only half its normal size. We had won a National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) grant, thanks to Dr. Gloria London, to bring 25 secondary-school teachers to the dig—but that was postponed out of concern that political tensions in the region would sour the teachers’ experience.