Palestinian Antiquities Looters, Their Skill Development, Methodology and Specialised Terminology: An Ethnographic Study

Al-Houdalieh, Salah Hussein

doi:10.1179/0031032812z.0000000005

“…The archaeology community in Turkey and worldwide battle against the looting of objects from archaeological sites (Barker 2018;Al-Houdalieh 2012a, 2012bBowman 2008;Brodie and Renfrew 2005;Byrne 2016;Elia 1997;Matsuda 1998). Raising local awareness about archaeological heritage protection and preservation requires strategies beyond penal codes which seem to be not effective.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Turkey's archaeological loss through illicit excavations has been reported in several studies, in which inadequacy of law enforcement and poverty have been introduced as main causes of the problem (Özdoğan 2005, 111-123;Özel and Karadayı 1998, 1-14;Özgen 2001, 119-120;Rose and Acar 1995;Lawrence and Main 1995, 150-160;Brodie 2002, 2-3;Atwood 2004, 144). Few have emphasized the impacts of culture and folklore on cultural heritage protection and preservation (Matsuda 1998;Moses 2015;Bauer 2015;Al-Houdalieh 2012a, 2012b, 2012cAtwood 2004;Shapiro 1994;Karataş 2021).…”

Section: Cultural and Folkloric Excuses For Lootingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2023

REF/JEF

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Georgia, the fables of Panchatantra are well-known through the book of Kalila and Dimna. However, some rare examples of direct parallels with the fables of Panchatantra appeared in Georgian literary sources and folk oral narratives. Next to the brief history of Panchatantras's journey through centuries, and an overview of Georgian historical chronicles Kartlis Tskhovreba (The Life of Kartli), A Book of Wisdom and Lies by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani, and Georgian folktales outline the transformations of some fables from Panchatantra in Georgia. The paper examines the role of animals in the fables in general, and shows the ways of interpretations on the example of the theme of ingratitude in context of European and Oriental narrative traditions.

show abstract

“…The archaeology community in Turkey and worldwide battle against the looting of objects from archaeological sites (Barker 2018;Al-Houdalieh 2012a, 2012bBowman 2008;Brodie and Renfrew 2005;Byrne 2016;Elia 1997;Matsuda 1998). Raising local awareness about archaeological heritage protection and preservation requires strategies beyond penal codes which seem to be not effective.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Turkey's archaeological loss through illicit excavations has been reported in several studies, in which inadequacy of law enforcement and poverty have been introduced as main causes of the problem (Özdoğan 2005, 111-123;Özel and Karadayı 1998, 1-14;Özgen 2001, 119-120;Rose and Acar 1995;Lawrence and Main 1995, 150-160;Brodie 2002, 2-3;Atwood 2004, 144). Few have emphasized the impacts of culture and folklore on cultural heritage protection and preservation (Matsuda 1998;Moses 2015;Bauer 2015;Al-Houdalieh 2012a, 2012b, 2012cAtwood 2004;Shapiro 1994;Karataş 2021).…”

Section: Cultural and Folkloric Excuses For Lootingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bucharest, 1969: The 5th Congress of the “International Society for Folk Narrative Research” (Facsimile Papers, Part VIII)

2023

REF/JEF

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Consider, as well, that activities which employ the jinn in the search for antiquities and treasure have not completely disappeared. The Palestinian scholar Salah Al-Houdalieh (2012) has recently conducted a remarkable study of some seventy-three illicit excavators in the Occupied Palestinian National Territories (OPNT) who employ those able to communicate with various jinn with knowledge of locations that might yield valuable antiquities. While there is considerable debate among these individuals regarding the efficacy of jinn assistance, they were, nevertheless, convinced that jinn served as protectors of such treasures (Al-Houdalieh 2012, 126).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spirits of Heritage, Specters of Ruins: Partnering with the Jinn in the Preservation of the Past

Straughn

¹

2017

Rev. Middle East Stud.

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In her recent study of the heritage project that is contemporary New Orleans, anthropologist Shanon Dawdy has suggested that “[s]ociety presents itself simultaneously as a ruin and as a kind of playland” (2016, 147). This notion that the ruin is both a product of, and a basis for, heritage practice serves as a useful intervention into long-standing treatments of ruins as exotic, romantic, and awaiting the discovery, glorification, and preservation of those that might give them meaning. In the present essay, I further challenge heritage approaches to ruins through an examination of the ways in which they have been associated, in various Muslim cultural contexts, with a set of distinctly sentient, yet non-human actors, the jinn. This pairing between place and spirits has shaped long-standing affective responses and practical engagements between local (human) inhabitants and their archaeologically rich landscapes across the Middle East and North Africa. This essay examines how those engagements often push against contemporary discourses highlighting the sublime aspects of ruins and the quasi-sacred nature of heritage. To that end, the following guiding questions structure my contribution: Can contemporary heritage discourses accommodate practices in which humans share control and ownership of the material past with spectral others? How might we reframe the mandate to preserve such ruins in light of alternative perspectives that mark these sites as sinister, and/or meaningful, precisely because of their ruination? Can universalizing heritage discourses accommodate practices that derive value from the material past without also subscribing to explicit preservationist goals? Such questions offer an opportunity to consider the inclusion of the Unseen, and perhaps others, whose perspectives have gone unrecognized, within professional heritage management and its hermeneutics of the past.

show abstract

Palestinian Antiquities Looters, Their Skill Development, Methodology and Specialised Terminology: An Ethnographic Study

Cited by 15 publications

References 12 publications

Untitled

Untitled

Bucharest, 1969: The 5th Congress of the “International Society for Folk Narrative Research” (Facsimile Papers, Part VIII)

Spirits of Heritage, Specters of Ruins: Partnering with the Jinn in the Preservation of the Past

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About