Sacred Geography, by Edward Fox
Archaeology in the Holy Land--until recently often called "biblical archaeology"--has been involved in the region's political struggles since the late 19th century. In the formative phases of exploration and discovery, the colonialist European powers and, later, America, in their quest to "prove the Bible," engaged in a form of cultural imperialism. Both used archaeology not only to impose the values of the Christian West upon the indigenous peoples of the region but also to dispossess them of their own past.
More recently, both ardent Israeli Zionists and reawakening Palestinian nationalists have gotten into the game, which revolves around the question "Who owns the past?"
Today we finally recognize that archaeology, despite its scientific pretensions, is hardly a neutral enterprise. Yet instead of leading us to attempt greater objectivity, this recognition has resulted in numerous competing "revisionist" histories of biblical Israel and ancient Palestine, each loudly claiming its priority. The archaeologist Albert E. Glock became involved in Israeli-Palestinian politics in beleaguered Jerusalem and paid for it with his life. The story of his death is eloquently told in this real-life "murder mystery" by journalist Edward Fox.
