Lecture on Jerusalem’s Archaeology

Monday, 04 March 2019, Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus

Title:

UNDER JERUSALEM: THE RELENTLESS MODERNIZATION OF JEWISH ANTIQUITY

Speaker:

AlonaNitzan-Shiftan, Technion University

Abstract:

“The Western Wall Tunnels” and the “The City of David” are two archaeological sites that have been radically developed in recent years to accommodate an exponential growth of visitors. This development requires considerable mediation between archaeology and architecture, or rather, between the materials of the past and their perception and use in the present. The result is a new set of spaces that preservationists and architects laboriously produce in the archaeological digs of Jerusalem, under Palestinian residences, in order to accommodate a new web of interconnected visitor centres. The talk demonstrates how the evolving relationship between their archaeological material, their architectural form, and their cultural and political content is necessary for a more robust development—the intersection of these underground centres with the urban space of the present city and the methods of evaluating its monuments. 

Caption: Archaeological sites in Jerusalem