Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T11:47:01.528Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bone Considerations: Archaeology, Heritage, and Ethics at Mamilla, Jerusalem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2017

Gideon Sulimani  and
Raz Kletter
Gideon Sulimani
Affiliation:
Emek-Shaveh Organization, Jerusalem, Israel; Email: sylimani@inter.net.il
Raz Kletter
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki, Tallinn, Estonia; Email: raz.kletter@helsinki.fi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Mamilla cemetery was one of the largest and most important Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem. The plans to build a “Museum of Tolerance” in it led to heated protests and a prolonged legal procedure in Israel’s Supreme Court of Justice. In 2008, the court approved the plans and many hundreds of graves were exhumed. Through the available sources, including the court’s archival files, we discuss political, legal, and archaeological aspects of this case, focusing on ethics about cemeteries and descendant communities. The discussion shows that the Israel Antiquities Authority breached the court orders and that the treatment of the archaeological remains was biased. “Their” graves were destroyed, and the bones reburied in secret, while “our” remains in the same areas were carefully excavated and preserved. Tolerance to “our” heritage at the expense of “theirs” is intolerance.

Keywords

heritagearchaeologytombsIsraelPalestinepoliticsJerusalem
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Cultural Property , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , August 2017 , pp. 321 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abu el-Haj, Nadia. 2001. Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Amit, David. 2009. “Water Supply to the Upper City of Jerusalem during the First and Second Temple Periods in Light of the Mamilla Excavations.” In New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem, vol. 3, edited by Amit, David, Stiebel, Guy, and Peleg-Barkat, Orit, 94–108. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authority (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Amit, David, and Gibson, Shimon. 2014. “Water to Jerusalem: The Route and Date of the Upper and Lower Level Aqueducts.” In Cura Aquarum in Israel II, edited by Ohlig, Christoph and Tsuk, Tsvika, 1–33. Siegburg: Papierfliegerverlag.Google Scholar
Aronsson, Kjell-Åke. 2013. “Reburial Ethics: The Neiden and Rounala Cases.” Norwegian Archaeological Review 46, no. 2: 223–25.Google Scholar
Babbit, Thomaira E. 2011. Silent History: Reclaiming Palestinian Cultural Patrimony and History and Using NAGPRA as a Paradigm. PhD dissertation, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond.Google Scholar
Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua. 1989. Jerusalem in the 19th Century: Emergence of the New City. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Blakey, Michael L. 2010. “African Burial Ground Project: A Paradigm for Cooperation?” Museum 62: 61–68.Google Scholar
Brown, Wendy. 2006. Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press Google Scholar
Cohen-Almagor, Raphael. 2007. “The Scope of Tolerance: Response to Nehushtan.” Israel Law Review 40: 277–96.Google Scholar
Colomer, Laia. 2010. “Approaching Montjuïc as Part of the Historic Legacy of Barcelona.” Museum 62: 81–85.Google Scholar
Colomer, Laia. 2013. “The Archaeology of Ancient Jewish Burial Grounds: Between the Demand for and the Res Publica.” In Archaeological Intervention on Historical Necropolises: Jewish Cemeteries, edited by Colomer, Laia, 335–45. Barcelona: Ajutament de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Colomer, Laia. 2014. “The Politics of Human Remains in Managing Archaeological Medieval Jewish Burial Grounds in Europe.” Nordic Journal of Cultural Policy 2: 168–86.Google Scholar
Corbett, Elena D. 2015. Competitive Archaeology in Jordan: Narrating Identity from the Ottomans to the Hashemites. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Da‘ādli, Tawfiq. 2011. “Mamlūk Epitaphs from Māmillā Cemetery.” Levant 43, no. 1: 78–97.Google Scholar
Dodd, L.S. 2007. “Heritage Formulation in Overtly Politicized Environments: A Commentary.” Archaeologies 3: 4–15.Google Scholar
Dorfman, Shuka. 2015. Under the Surface. Or Yehuda: Kinneret, Zmora-Bitan, Dvir (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Dumper, M. 1998. “Muslim Institutional Development in Jerusalem: The Role of waqfs.” Journal of Islamic Studies 2, no. 1: 21–38.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Thomas J. 2010. “Improving the Quality of Archaeology in the United States through Consultation and Collaboration with Native American and Descendant Communities.” In Archaeology and Cultural Resource Management: Visions for the Future, edited by Sebastian, Lynne and Lipe, William D., 169–93. Santa Fe: SAR Press.Google Scholar
Gerstenkorn, Jacques. 2017. “To Whom Do the Dead Belong? The Jewish Cemetery at the Hôtel-Dieu in Lyon, France.” Human Remains and Violence 3: 22–36.Google Scholar
Goldberg, David T. 2004. “The Power of Tolerance.” In Philosemitism, Antisemitism, and “the Jews”: Perspectives from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century, edited by Kushner, Tony and Valman, Nadia, 31–48. London: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gori, Maja. 2013. “The Stones of Contention: The Role of Archaeological Heritage in Israeli–Palestinian Conflict.” Archaeologies 9, no. 1: 213–29.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Rafi. 2008. “‘The Rock of Our Existence’: A Parable of Archaeology-State Relations in Israel.” In Archaeology and Nationalism in Eretz-Israel, edited by Feige, Michael and Shiloni, Zvi, 105–20. Beer Sheba: Ben-Gurion University (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Greenberg, Rafi. 2009. “Towards an Inclusive Archaeology in Jerusalem: The Case of Silwan/The City of David.” Public Archaeology 8, no. 1: 35–50.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Rafi. 2014. “A Privatized Heritage: How the Israel Antiquities Authority Relinquished Jerusalem’s Past.” Jerusalem: Emek Shaveh.Google Scholar
Halperin, Eran, Canetti-Nisim, Daphna, and Hirsch-Hoefler, Sivan. 2009. “The Central Role of Group-Based Hatred as an Emotional Antecedent of Political Intolerance: Evidence from Israel.” Political Psychology 30: 93–123.Google Scholar
Heyd, David, ed. 1996. Toleration: An Elusive Virtue. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Israeli, Raphael, Berkovits, Shmuel, Neriah, Jacques, and Hier, Marvin. 2010. “The Architecture of Erasure: Fantasy or Reality?” Critical Inquiry 36: 563–94.Google Scholar
Kadare, Ismail. 1963. The General of the Dead Army, translated by Coltman, Derek. Rev. ed. London: Harvill Press.Google Scholar
Karlsson, Hakan. 2013. “A New Ethical Path for Archaeology?” Norwegian Archaeological Review 46, no. 2: 227–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kersel, Morag. 2015. “Fractured Oversight: The ABCs of Cultural Heritage in Palestine after the Oslo Accords.” Journal of Social Archaeology 15: 24–44.Google Scholar
Kim, Jieun, and Steadman, Dawnie W.. 2014. “A Review of Codes of Ethics in the United States and Ethical Dilemmas Surrounding the Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).” Korean Journal of Physical Anthropology 27, no. 2: 47–63.Google Scholar
Kletter, Raz. 2006. Just Past? The Making of Israeli Archaeology. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Kletter, Raz. 2014. “Archaeological Voices from Jerusalem.” In Exploring the Narrative: Jerusalem and Jordan in the Bronze and Iron Ages, edited by Steen, Eveline Van der, Boertien, Jeannette, and Muldr-Hymans, Noor, 394–427. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Kletter, Raz, and Sulimani, Gideon. 2016. “The Destruction That Can Be Studied.” In Historicity, Archaeology and the Bible Forty Years after “Historicity,” Changing Perspectives Series 6, edited by Hjelm, Ingrid and Thompson, Thomas L., 174–204. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kloner, Amos. 2001. Archaeological Survey of Israel: Survey of Jerusalem: The Northeastern Sector (Map 102). Jerusalem: Israel Antiquities Authority.Google Scholar
Kuprecht, Karolina. 2012. “The Concept of ‘Cultural Affiliation’ in NAGPRA: Its Potential and Limits in the Global Protection of Indigenous Cultural Property Rights.” International Journal of Cultural Property 19, no. 1: 33–63.Google Scholar
Lackey, Douglas P. 2006. “Ethics and Native American Reburials: a Philosopher’s View of Two Decades of NAGPRA.” In The Ethics of Archaeology: Philosophical Perspectives on Archaeological Practice, edited by Scarre, Chris and Scarre, Geoffrey, 146–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leshem, Noam. 2015. “‘Over Our Dead Bodies’: Placing Necropolitical Activism.” Political Geography 45: 34–44.Google Scholar
Lilley, David J. M., Stroud, Gillian, Brotherwell, Don R., and Williamson, Mark H., eds. 1994. The Jewish Burial Ground at Jewbury, vol. 12: The Medieval Cemeteries. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Lynnott, Mark J., and Wylie, Alison. 2000. Ethics in American Archaeology: Challenges for the 1990s. Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology.Google Scholar
Makdisi, Saree. 2010. “The Architecture of Erasure.” Critical Inquiry 36: 519–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, Randall. 2004. “Fixing Historic Preservation: A Constructive Critique of ‘Significance.’” Places 16, no. 1: 64–71.Google Scholar
Mack, Mark E., and Blakey, Michael L.. 2004. “The New York African Burial Ground Project: Past Biases, Current Dilemmas, and Future Research Opportunities.” Historical Archaeology 38, no. 1: 10–17.Google Scholar
Mahmoud, Ahmadand, and Veeder, Anna. 2016. Hidden Heritage: A Guide to the Mamilla Cemetery, Jerusalem. Jerusalem: Emek Shaveh Organization.Google Scholar
Meskell, Lynn, ed. 1998. Archaeology under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Meskell, Lynn, and Van Demme, Lynette S.. 2007. “Heritage Ethics and Descendent Communities.” In Collaboration in Archaeological Practice: Engaging Descendant Communities, edited by Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip and Ferguson, Thomas J., 131–50. Walnut Creek: Altamira.Google Scholar
Nagar, Yosi. 2002. “Bone Reburial in Israel: Legal Restrictions and Methodological Implications.” In The Dead and Their Possessions: Repatriation in Principle, Policy and Practice, edited by Cressida, Fforde, Hubert, Jane, and Turnbull, Paul, 87–90. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nash, Stephen E., and Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip. 2010. “NAGPRA after Two Decades.” Museum Anthropology 33, no. 2: 99–104.Google Scholar
Nilsson-Stutz, Liiv. 2009. “Archaeology, Identity, and the Right to Culture: Anthropological Perspectives on Repatriation. Current Swedish Archaeology 15–16: 157–72.Google Scholar
Nilsson-Stutz, Liiv. 2012. “The Case of the Mamilla Cemetery and the Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity.” Heritage and Society 5, no. 2: 221–48.Google Scholar
Nilsson-Stutz, Liiv. 2013. “Claims to the Past: A Critical View of the Arguments Driving Repatriation of Cultural Heritage and Their Role in Contemporary Identity Politics.” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 7, no. 2: 170–95.Google Scholar
Parker-Pearson, Mike, Pitts, Mike, and Sayer, Duncan. 2013. “Changes in Policy for Excavating Human Remains in England and Wales.” In Curating Human Remains: Caring for the Dead in the United Kingdom, edited by Giesen, Myra, 147–58. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer.Google Scholar
Polonovski, Max. 2013. “Jewish Cemeteries and Archaeology: New Scientific and Legal Challenges.” In Archaeological Intervention on Historical Necropolises: The Jewish Cemeteries, edited by Laia Colomer, , 107–14. Barcelona: Ajutament de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Reiter, Yitzhak. 2011. Allah’s Safe Haven? The Controversy Surrounding the Mamilla Cemetery and the Museum of Tolerance. Jerusalem: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Sayer, D. 2010. Ethics and Burial Archaeology. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Scarre, G. 2013. “Sapient Trouble-Tombs?: Archaeologists’ Moral Obligations to the Dead.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial, edited by Nilsson-Stutz, Liiv and Tarlow, S., 665–76. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shay, Talia. 1992. “The Living and the Dead: The Dilemma of Excavating Graves in Israel.” In The Limitations of Archaeological Knowledge, edited by Shay, Talia and Clottes, J., 67–73. Liège: University of Liège.Google Scholar
Shelbourn, C. 2013. “Burial Archaeology: Reflections on the Law, Policy and Ethics of Research on Human Remains and ‘Digging the Dead’.” Art Antiquity and Law 18, no. 1: 59–75.Google Scholar
Silberman, Neil A. 2001. “If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem: Archaeology, Religious Commemoration and Nationalism in a Disputed City, 1801–2001.” Nations and Nationalism 7: 487–95.Google Scholar
Silberman, Neil A. 2005. “Jewish and Muslim Heritage in Europe: The Role of Archaeology in Defining Cultural Diversity.” Museum 57, no. 3: 95–100.Google Scholar
Silberman, Neil A. 2013. “Who Should Take Care of the Dead? Scientific Method, Human Rights, Heritage and Community Beliefs.” In Archaeological Intervention on Historical Necropolises: The Jewish Cemeteries, edited by Laia Colomer, , 33–41. Barcelona: Ajutament de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Sion, Ofer. 2011. “Response to David Amit.” Qadmoniyot 142: 108–09 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Sivan, Rene. 2013. “Historic Continuity and the Difficulties of Excavations in Jewish Cemeteries: The Situation in Israel.” In Archaeological Intervention on Historical Necropolises: The Jewish Cemeteries, edited by Colomer, Laia, 347–54. Barcelona: Ajutament de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Sprecher-Segalovitz, Shira, 2011. Death Scape: Muslim Cemeteries and the Evolution of Urban Space, Mamilla and Abed Al-Nabi Cemeteries as Case Studies. Haifa: Israel Institute of Technology (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Sulimani, Gideon, 2013. “Israeli Archaeology in the Old City of Jerusalem.” In The Politics of Israel’s Past: The Bible, Archaeology and Nation-Building, edited by Pfoh, Emanuel and Whitelam, Keith W., 120–36. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press.Google Scholar
Sulimani, Gideon. 2017. “Jerusalem, Mamilla.” Excavations and Surveys in Israel, vol. 129, http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/Report_Detail_Eng.aspx?id=25210&mag_id=125 (accessed 20 May 2017).Google Scholar
Thomas, Suzie, and Koskinen-Koivisto, Eerika. 2016. “Ghosts in the Background and the Price of War.” Nordisk Museologi 2: 66–77.Google Scholar
Thurnbull, Paul. 2004. “Indigeneous Australian People, Their Defence of the Dead and Native Title.” In The Dead and Their Possessions: Repatriation in Principle, Policy and Practice, edited by Fforde, Cressida, Hubert, Jane, and Turnbull, Paul, 63–86. Routledge: London.Google Scholar
Waltzer, Michael, 1997. On Toleration. Yale: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Elizabethada A. 2005. “Rhetorical Spaces in Memorial Places: The Cemetery as Rhetorical Memory Place/Space.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 35, no. 4: 51–81.Google Scholar
Wylie, Alison. 2005. “The Promise and Perils of an Ethic of Stewardship.” In Embedding Ethics, edited by Meskell, Linn and Pells, Peter, 47–68. London: Berg Press.Google Scholar
Wylie, Alison. 2015. “A Plurality of Pluralisms: Collaboration in Archaeology.” In Objectivity in Science, Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science no. 310, edited by Padovani, Flavia et al., 189–210. Basel: Springer.Google Scholar
Yahya, Adel H. 2005. “Archaeology and Nationalism in the Holy Land.” In Archaeologies of the Middle East: Critical Perspectives, edited by Pollock, Susan and Bernbeck, Reinhard, 66–77. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Yekutieli, Y. 2008. “From the Field of Nationalism to the Field of Capital: Archaeology Today, 1989–1998.” In Archaeology and Nationalism in Eretz Israel, edited by Feige, Michael and Shiloni, Zeev, 221–34. Beer Sheba: Ben Gurion University (in Hebrew).Google Scholar