Layers of History: Archaeology, Archives, and Oral Histories at Tel Hadid, with Ido Koch (Tel Aviv Univ) (Weds. Oct. 16, 2024)

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.