The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant - Cynthia Shafer-Elliott
8. Why not dig the whole site?
The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant - Cynthia Shafer-Elliott
Aren Maeir [+]
Bar-Ilan University
Aren M. Maeir is a professor of archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University (Ramat-Gan, Israel). He has published extensively on the Bronze and Iron Age of the Ancient Near East, including most recently Berlejung, A., Maeir. A. M., and Schuele, A., Wandering Arameans: Arameans Outside Syria - Textual and Archaeological Perspectives (Harrassowitz, 2017).
Description
Unless a site is about to destroyed to due to modern development (such as the construction of buildings, roads, etc.), the modern practice and ethics of contemporary archaeologists does not allow the complete excavation of an ancient archaeological site. Here are some reasons why.