• DOI:10.5615/neareastarch.80.1.0040
• Corpus ID: 164811697

The Destruction of Archaeological Resources in the Palestinian Territories, Area C: Kafr Shiyān as a Case Study

@article{AlHoudalieh2017TheDO,
  title={The Destruction of Archaeological Resources in the Palestinian Territories, Area C: Kafr Shiyān as a Case Study},
  author={Salah Hussein A. Al-Houdalieh and Saleh Ali Tawafsha},
  journal={Near Eastern Archaeology},
  year={2017},
  volume={80},
  pages={40 - 49}
}

• S. Al-Houdalieh, Saleh Ali Tawafsha
• Published 1 March 2017
• Sociology
• Near Eastern Archaeology

Many archaeological sites, both major and minor, situated in the Palestinian Territories, are suffering from an absence of meaningful control and protection. They are experiencing relentless destruction due to both modern urban development projects and illegal digging to extract marketable archaeological objects. In recent decades, this destruction of archaeological resources has entered an especially dangerous, sensitive, and complicated phase, as a large number of structures have been built on archaeological sites using heavy equipment that remove all cultural deposits down to bedrock, without any kind of archaeological documentation or supervision from institutions overseeing cultural heritage or urban-development planning. Khirbet Kafr Shiyān, which is land privately owned entirely by Palestinians yet under the sole administrative control of Israeli authorities, is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Over the last few decades it has suffered the complete destruction of approximately 42 percent of its cultural deposits. The authors provide an assessment of the recent destruction and offer suggestions critical for the protection of this and similar archaeological sites.