BARlines

“If Only … ”

Two scholars, one an Israeli and the other an American spending a sabbatical year in Jerusalem, recently wrote a few words that made us think about the price archaeology continues to pay because archaeologists in the Middle East often cannot follow their scholarship into neighboring countries.

In the Fall 1982 issue of Biblical Archeologist, Israeli archaeologist Rudolph Cohen writes about the history of the ancient road between Petra and Gaza. Cohen laments that the segment of this road between Petra and the Wadi Aravah, “located in present day Jordan, [is] inaccessible to the Israeli archaeologist,” so he cannot explore it.