Archaeology, Nation, and Race

Raphael Greenberg is Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University. He has conducted numerous excavations and published widely on the Bronze and Iron Age Levant and on the social and political contexts of archaeology in Israel/Palestine. His book The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant won the G. E. Wright book award. Yanis Hamilakis is Joukowsky Family Professor at Brown University where he teaches archaeology and Modern Greek Studies. He has published widely on archaeological theory, politics of the past, decolonization, archaeology and the senses, and the Neolithic and Bronze Age Aegean. His Nation and its Ruins won the Edmund Keeley Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Runciman Prize. His edited book, The New Nomadic Age, was amongst the Best Books for 2019 for Artforum.

• 1. Introduction; 2. The Colonial Origins of National Archaeologies; 3. Archaeology in the Crypto-colony; 4. Archaeology as Purification; 5. Whitening Greece and Israel: Nation, Race, and Archaeogenetics; 6. Decolonizing our Imagination; 7. Conclusion.

'This is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking archaeology books that I have read in a long time. It is truly a meeting of two deep-thinking minds – Yannis Hamilakis musing on Greece and Rafael Greenberg musing on Israel. Universally regarded as two of the most thoughtful, intellectual, and politically active archaeologists working today, both with impeccable credentials, one couldn't ask for two more devoted and opinionated (in a good way) scholars, who don't fear to speak their minds and advocate for the causes that they hold dear.' Eric Cline, George Washington University