detailed stratigraphy and microphasing, and special emphasis has been laid on the clearance of living surfaces and exhaustive attempts to restore pottery assemblages. Fifth, Israeli archaeology (excluding prehistory) has been allied almost exclusively with the disciplines of history, philology, and comparative literature with anthropology playing a minor role, if any—in contrast to New World archaeology. Its adoption of aspects of the new archaeology has been slow, sporadic, and limited to such obvious practical strategies as ecological studies, regional surveys, and applied science in the analysis of certain materials. Deliberate, explicit research design is rare, and nomothetic approaches are almost unheard of. As Israelis argue, their connection with the land and its history is “direct and emotional,” not theoretical; in any case, the urgency of salvage work and the necessities and hardships of so many excavations leave little time for reflection or comparisons with archaeology in other parts of the world. Thus, if archaeology in Israel is understandably somewhat parochial, it is also probably more intense, both professionally and popularly, than archaeology anywhere else.

A word should be added about foreign archaeology in Israel. Excavations sponsored by other nations have continued since the formation of the state of Israel, although on a relatively smaller and still-decreasing scale because of the dominance of the Israeli national school. The first postwar large-scale U.S. excavations were at Gezer (1964–1974, 1984, 1990); directed by G.E. Wright, W.G. Dever, and J.D. Seger, these excavations had a far-reaching significance in introducing methods of the new archaeology.

That tradition has continued largely with Gezer-trained excavators at Tell el-Hesi, a series of Galilean synagogue sites (E. M. and C. Meyers, J.F. Strange), at Lahav (J. D. Seger), at Tel Miqne/Ekron (S. Gitin, with T. Dothan), at Ashkelon (L. E. Stager), and other sites, both in Israel and Jordan. The old American School of Oriental Research, renamed the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in 1968, continued its operations as a permanent in-country research institute. The British, French, and German institutes also continue to operate, although all transferred most of their fieldwork to jordan after 1948. Alongside the Israel Exploration Journal, the journals of the foreign schools disseminate important information about archaeology in Israel, namely, the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Levant and the Palestine Exploration Journal, Revue Biblique, and the Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina-Vereins.

Bill Dever

See also

Syro-Palestinian and Biblical Archaeology

References

Bar-Yosef, O., and A. Mazar. 1982. “Israeli Archaeology.” World Archaeology 13: 310–325.

Ben-Tor, A., ed. 1992. The Archaeology of Ancient Israel. New Haven: Yale University.

Dever, W.G. 1985. “Syro-Palestinian and Biblical Archaeology.” In the Hebrew Bible and Its Modern Interpreters. Ed. D.A. Knight and G.M. Tucker. Chico, CA: Scholars Press.

———. 1989. “Archaeology in Israel Today: A Summation and Critique.” In Recent Excavations in Israel: Studies in Iron Age Archaeology. Ed. S. Gitin and W.G. Dever. Winona Lake, IN: For American Schools of Oriental Research.

Kempinski, A., and R. Reich, eds. 1992. The Architecture of Ancient Israel. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

Mazar, A. 1988. “Israeli Archaeologists.” In Benchmarks in Time and Culture: An Introduction to Palestinian Archaeology. Ed. J.F. Drinkard, G.L. Mattingly, and J.M. Miller. Atlanta: Scholars Press.

———. 1990. The Archaeology of the Land of the Bible ca. 10,000–586 b.c.e. New York: Doubleday.

Moorey, P.R.S. 1991. A Century of Biblical Archaeology. Cambridge, UK: Lutterworth Press.

Silberman, N.A. 1982. Digging for God and Country: Exploration. Archaeology and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land, 1799–1917. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Stern, E., ed. 1993. The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. 4 vols. New York: Scribners.

Italy

The history of Italian archaeology is dominated by the city of Rome, the grand imperial capital that was transformed into the seat of ecclesiastical power. Many Roman imperial buildings remained above ground and in use, and the description and exploration of these structures