Who were the workers who carried out excavation of archaeological sites in the “big dig” era of the early 20th century in Palestine? Under whose authority did they operate? How were these personnel hired and paid? What kinds of work did they carry out? These workers made critical contributions to the field, yet as seasonal continent laborers, they have remained uncredited and largely nameless in original field reports and in subsequent research on the history of archaeology. Why?
These questions are addressed in the open-access web exhibition, “Unsilencing the Archives: The Laborers of the Tell en-Naṣbeh Excavations (1926-1935)” for which Badè Museum curators Melissa Cradic and Sam Pfister were awarded ASOR‘s inaugural Community Engagement and Public Outreach Award.
Cradic discusses the inspiration for the exhibition and the importance of reframing the narrative of 20th-century archeological digs in the Middle East in ASOR’s The Ancient Near East Today.
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