Plundering the past in the Biblical world: searching for an interdisciplinary panacea with reference to archaeological heritage in Egypt and Israel

Abstract

The plundering of archaeological heritage is an international phenomenon that drives the illicit trade in antiquities. In fact, the looting and destruction of tangible cultural resources has occurred since antiquity such as tomb robbing in pharaonic Egypt or the pillaging and destruction of ancient cities in the southern Levant, more specifically the ‘Holy Land’, due to incursions of the Israelites, Assyrians or Babylonians among many others. Today, it is still an ongoing problem that seems to be exacerbated the most in the region of the biblical world. While the plundering and vandalism of antiquities is also a reflection of past and present socio-economic and geopolitical circumstances, it actually causes a loss of data available for the study of Biblical Archaeology, thereby hindering the understanding of the people, places and events described in the biblical narrative. Therefore, it is imperative that a solution should be found, that at the very least offers the potential of curbing the degree to which the looting and destruction of archaeological heritage occurs in the present. Since this is a very complex issue and a single approach such as legislation alone does not appear to suffice in tackling it, a more multifaceted approach that targets these issues from different angles is necessary. Therefore, this thesis proposes an interdisciplinary four-pillar approach for addressing the plundering of the cultural heritage of the biblical world, which includes monitoring, documentation, public archaeology and physical and legal securitisation. In order to investigate the utility of this approach, the archaeological site of Tel Hazor in Israel is considered for the application of a pilot study.