Abstract
The Ottoman Empire ruled over Palestine from 1516 to 1917; the nature of imperial control and the legacy of the Ottoman centuries are contested. A decade after several calls for archaeology in Israel to include the Ottoman period, in part to address some of the debates, several archaeological projects have yielded the parameters of an historical archaeology in Israel. The difficulties associated with the terminology of historical archaeology in the Middle East are briefly considered, and the definition of historical archaeology in the region as the archaeology of the Ottoman Empire is advocated. Four archaeological examples —Tel el-Hesi, Ti’innik, Yocne’am, and Akko—are employed to illustrate the contribution of this research to resolving historical questions and for contextualizing Palestine within regional and global processes of change. The prospects of the research trajectories conclude the review.
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Baram, U. The development of historical archaeology in Israel: An overview and prospects. Hist Arch 36, 12–29 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374366
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374366