Plan brokered by UCLA, USC archaeologists would remove roadblock to Mideast peace

Negotiations lead to first agreement on region's archaeological riches

Israelis and Palestinians may not be able to agree right now on their present or future, but, if a pair of Los Angeles archaeologists have their way, they soon will see eye to eye on their past.

Working tirelessly for the past five years, Ran Boytner, a University of California, Los Angeles archaeologist and Lynn Swartz Dodd, an archaeologist at the University of Southern California, have guided a team of prominent Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists to arrive at the first-ever agreement on the disposition of the region's archaeological treasures following the establishment of a future Palestinian state.

"Israelis and Palestinians never previously had sat down to achieve a structured, balanced agreement to govern the region's archaeological heritage," said Dodd, a lecturer in religion and curator of USC's Archaeological Research Collection. "Our group got together with the vision of a future when people wouldn't be at each other's throats and archaeology would need to be protected, irrespective of which side of the border it falls on."

With dozens of high-ranking Israeli, Palestinian, U.S. and international statesmen and Palestinian archaeologists already aware of the Israeli-Palestinian Archaeology Working Group Agreement, the 39-point document now faces its toughest audience: Israeli archaeologists whose country would cede control over tens of thousands of artifacts and hundreds of sites.

"We're talking about putting your precious archaeological heritage — things you believe your ancestors created — in the hands of what you now consider to be your enemy," Dodd said. "We're asking enemies to become partners."

"According to international law, if there is a future Palestinian state, the Israelis will have to return all archaeological artifacts to the Palestinian state," said Boytner, director for international research at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. "That, for the [Israeli] right wing, would be a major rallying point to oppose the peace process. Therefore, archaeology could be a deal-breaker in future peace negotiations. But if we can deal with archaeology, we can help create a stable peace process that will be respected by both sides for years to come."

While the agreement does not spell out the disposition of specific sites or artifacts, it has implications — depending on how borders eventually are drawn by statesmen — for a wide range of cultural lightning rods located in or excavated from Israeli-occupied territories, including a religious compound thought to be involved in the production of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran), the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) and an important archaeological site (Mount Ebal) celebrated by Israeli settlers as the spot where the Old Testament leader Joshua built an altar to the Jewish God in thanks for allowing the Israelites to cross the Jordan River and reach the Promised Land.