Amara Thornton

Tents, Tours, and Treks: Archaeologists, Antiquities Services, and Tourism in Mandate Palestine and Transjordan

Abstract In the period between the end of the First World War and the declaration of the Palestine Mandate, a system for administering Palestine, preserving its heritage and protecting, reconstructing, and promoting its antiquities was implemented. Archaeology, though underfunded by government, was touted as one of the jewels of the Mandate administration. This paper will discuss the political framework for archaeology and tourism in British Mandate Palestine and Transjordan, introducing some of the key characters in the history of archaeological or heritage tourism in Mandate Palestine and Transjordan. It will present archaeology’s impact within the British Mandate administration as particularly useful for forging a unique identity to solidify Mandate authority in the region. The effects of this archaeological/political connection are still visible in Israel and Jordan today.

Public Archaeology Interviews Neal Ascherson

Neal Ascherson has recently stepped down as editor of Public Archaeology after more than ten years of involvement with the journal, from its conception and foundation to its present position as an international forum for research and debate in the politics of the past. He is best known as an award-winning journalist, writing for a number of publications including the Guardian, the Scotsman, the Observer, and the Independent on Sunday; he is also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books. Ascherson’s long-term interest in archaeology and heritage has endured from his membership of Eton Junior Archaeological Society in the 1940s to an honorary professorship at UCL Institute of Archaeology in 2008. Following national service with the Royal Marines in Malaya, he studied history at Cambridge as a student of Eric Hobsbawm, and has since written extensively on historical and archaeological subjects: his widely acclaimed book Black Sea (1995) is a unique meeting of archaeology, historical geography, and ancient, modern, and contemporary history. In the 1980s Ascherson’s interest in archaeology, nationalism, and the heritage industry brought him into contact with Peter Ucko during the furore surrounding the Southampton World Archaeological Congress (Ascherson, 2006; Ucko, 1987). In 1996 Ucko became director of the UCL Institute of Archaeology and began to promote the new discipline of ‘public archaeology’ in undergraduate and graduate level teaching, as well as through research and publication (Schadla-Hall, 2006). At Ucko’s invitation, Ascherson joined the Institute as a part-time lecturer with the task of creating and launching the journal Public Archaeology, which fi rst appeared in 2000. Since that time the journal has faithfully continued to promote public archaeology in the inclusive and explicitly political sense that Ucko and Ascherson intended. Shortly after the handover to a new editorial team, the assistant editors conducted an ‘exit interview’ with Neal Ascherson to discuss his time at the journal and the Institute of Archaeology, and his thoughts on the world of archaeological heritage as a whole.