open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/76159

The Preservation and Exhibition of Christian Church Sites in Israel : From the Viewpoint of Public Archaeology

英語

2009

The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan

Bulletin of the Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan

52(1)

138-158

This article examines how Christian archaeological sites have been excavated, preserved and exhibited in Israel. It has been pointed out that the archaeological research and preservation in the Near East have been affected by ethnic, religious and political ideologies in this area: Especially in Israel, archaeology has been used to highlight the idea that this area has been the land of the Israeli from ancient times. Thus, conservation and exhibition of site has also concentrated on Jewish sites. However, it is not clear how non-Jewish archaeological sites, such as Christian and Muslim ones, have been treated in the modern Israeli society. Therefore, this article describes how non-Jewish archaeological sites have been dealt with by examining the archaeological practices at Christian sites, especially those of ancient churches. Two organizations, the National Park Authority and the Franciscan Order are dealt with in this article. The analysis suggests that the ancient churches in the national parks are preserved as a whole and exhibited as the one of the buildings in the city, whereas, the Franciscan Order keeps them below the modern church buildings and shows them through a window. There are cased where the remains of the ancient churches are mostly covered with marbles or incorporated into new buildings. This difference is due to not only to the difference between the churches build for local congregations, which tends to be found in the national parks and the commemorative churches which tends to be found in the Franciscan properties, but also due to the custodian’s sense of value of the church sites. National Park Authority exhibits church remains as the one of the elements of the ancient city or the cultural heritage which reflects a certain period of Israel’s history: the Franciscan Order preserves them as the religious sites to show the historical continuity of faith. These results indicate the fact that several approaches exist for examining, preserving and exhibiting the ancient churches. This fact plays a role of balancing the multiple viewpoints to the archaeological remains.

学術雑誌論文

Version of Record

0030-5219

AN00034305