Archaeology Seminar Series Talk by Ido Koch, October 16th

During the Fall of 2024, Boston University's Archaeology Program will be hosting a series of lectures. Our second lecture is titled “Layers of History: Archaeology, Archives, and Oral Histories at Tel Hadid.” We are thrilled to have Dr. Ido Koch (Tel Aviv University) joining us to share their work. The talk is Wednesday, October 16th in the Gabel Museum of Archaeology, STO 253, 675 Commonwealth Avenue, 12:20-1:10. Lunch provided. Tel Hadid is a multi-layered site in Israel’s central coastal plain, within eye-sight of downtown Tel Aviv. This presentation offers an overview of the project, ongoing since 2018. We begin in the 8th century BCE, with a group of deportees forcibly relocated here by the Assyrian Empire, whose material remains offer insights into the experience of uprootedness. We then pivot to the later 2nd century BCE and the construction here of a massive Hasmonean fortress, whose siting and viewshed reflect the use of landscape as a tool for projecting power. Finally, we move to the recent past with al-Haditha, a village whose residents became refugees when their homes were destroyed in the 1948 War. At Tel Hadid/al-Haditha, we use archaeology, archival records, and oral histories to trace the pendulum’s swing over millennia, showing a repeating story from displacement to power and back again.