Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 11 June 2009

Abstract

A total of 119 rock-cut burial caves of the Roman and Byzantine periods were surveyed in the study area, all of which had been subjected to robbing at some point in the recent past. This tomb raiding in the Saffa region has resulted in severe damage to a large number of rock-cut tombs, the desecration of several hundred ancient burials, and in the extraction of thousands of funerary objects from their original context. This study depends mainly on interviews with several of the raiders of these tombs and on a field survey carried out by the author in February and March 2011. The main aim of this study is to address three questions: What are the present and future challenges facing the tombs of the Roman and Byzantine periods in the study area? Could an ethnographical study help us to expand our understanding of the looting history of these burial caves and the kinds of looted objects that were found there? What can such an ethnographical study add to our understanding of the past?     

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting for the Palestine Exploration Fund, 9 June 2016

Abstract

Palestine's archaeological heritage is facing a serious crisis due to the prevalence of illicit digging. Antiquities looting is a widespread and flourishing phenomenon throughout the Palestinian National Territories (PNT) and has resulted in a large number of primary and secondary archaeological sites and features being damaged, disfigured, or completely destroyed, and in the extraction of at least hundreds of thousands of heritage items. The main aim of this research project is to explore the physical hazards encountered by the Palestinian antiquities looters. To this end I interviewed 53 antiquities looters residing in 41 different villages in the West Bank. The physical hazards which they encountered are classified by type as follows: cave-ins; the use of equipment, including heavy machinery (back-hoes, front-end loaders, bulldozers, etc.), other power implements, and traditional excavation tools; falling stones or tools; contact with insects, snakes, scorpions, and spiders; work during inclement weather; and attack by the jinn.     

Minutes of Meetings.

EUROPEAN FOLKLORE IN AMERICA. By REIDAR TH. CHRISTIANSEN Universitetsforlaget. Oslo, Scandinavian University Books, 1962. Reviewed by Amabel Williams-Ellis.

RAIN IN INDIAN LIFE AND LORE. Edited by SANKAR SEN GUPTA. Foreworded (sic) by Nirmal Kumar Bose. Calcutta, Indian Publications, 1963. Reviewed by J. H. Hutton.

THE WHITE GOD OF THE AZTECS. By WILLIAM A. BERG. Pp. 412. Boston, Bruce Humphries, 1961. Reviewed by C. A. Burland.

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY. Selections edited by SOL TAX from the ‘encyclopedic inventory’ prepared under the Chairmanship of A. L. KROEBER. Phoenix Books, 1963. 21s. net. Reviewed by C. A. Burland.

Tire REALM OF GHOSTS. By ERIC MAPLE. Robert Hale, 21s. Reviewed by Geoffrey Palmer.

THE FOLKTALES OF ISRAEL. Edited by Dov NOY with the assistance of DAN BEN-AMOS. Translated by GENE BAHARAV: Folktales of the World, General Editor Richard M. Dorson. University of Chicago Press. Reviewed by K. M. Briggs.

ANCIENT FESTIVALS OF ‘SATURNALIA’ TYPE. By PHOTEINE P. BOURBOULIS. Thessaloniki, 1963. Pp. 60. n.p. Reviewed by E. O. James.

WITCHCRAFT: EUROPEAN AND AFRICAN. By GEOFFREY PARRINDER. Faber and Faber, 1963. 25s. Reviewed by A. W. Smith.

‘SCHLÄGE’ ALS STRAFE. Ein Bestandteil der heutigen Familiensitte in volkskundlicher Sicht. By WÄLTER HAVERNICK. Hamburg, Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, 1964. Pp. 164; 12 diagrams and 43 illustrations. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

DIE ÖSTERREICHISCHEN SCHÜTZENGILDEN UND IHRE FESTE. 1500–1750. Studien zu ihrer Geschichte. By H. GOJA. Vienna, Verlag Notring der wissenschaftlichen Verbände Österreichs, 1963. Pp. 150; 2 plates. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

ZAUBERPFLANZEN UND HEXENTRÄNKE. BRAUCHTUM UND ABERGLAUBE. By H. MARZELL. Kosmos-Bibliothek, Vol. 241. Stuttgart, Francksche Verlagshandlung, 1963. Pp. 88; 25 text illustrations, 8 plates. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

CLARE PRIORY (SEVEN CENTURIES OF A SUFFOLK HOUSE). By K. W. BARNARDISTON. Cambridge, W. Heffer, 1962. 21s. Reviewed by A. A. Waugh.

THE TRADITIONAL TUNES OF THE CHILD BALLADS. With their Texts According to the Extant Records of Great Britain and America. Volume II. By BERNARD HARRIS BRONSON. Princeton University Press, 1962. Reviewed by K. M. Briggs.

ROUND THE WORLD FAIRY TALES. Re-told by AMABEL WILLIAMS-ELLIS. Illustrated by William Stobbs. Blackie. 25s. Reviewed by K. M. Briggs.

FOLK LIFE COLLECTION AND CLASSIFICATION. By J. W. Y. HIGGS, M.A.: Published by the Museums Association, 1963. Pp. 58. 7s. Reviewed by R. U. Sayce.

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE MONGOLS AND OTHER PIECES. By ARTHUR WALEY. George Allen &; Unwin Ltd. Pp. 320. 32s. Reviewed by W. H. Hudspeth.

MORE TALES FROM THE FENS. By W. H. BARRETT. Edited by ENID PORTER. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964. 25s. Reviewed by Carmen Blacker.

ATLAS DER DEUTSCHEN VOLKSKUNDE, NEUE FOLGE. Erläuterungen zur 2. Lieferung. Edited by M. ZENDER. Marburg, N. G. Elwert, 1963, Pp. 233–528; 6 illustrations, 31 text maps. Maps: NF 13–24. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

OESTERREICHISCHER VOLKSKUNDEATLAS. Edited by E. BURGSTALLER and A. HELBOK. 1st issue. Linz, 1959. 13 maps; comments, pp. 95, index of places, pp. 125. Reviewed by Ellen Ettlinger.

WITCHES. Investigating an Ancient Religion. By T. C. LETHBRIDGE. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962. 21s. Reviewed by A. W. Smith.     

Minutes of Meeting

Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt. By W. M. Flinders Petrie. Methuen &; Co., London, 1898. By A. H. Sayce.

A History o China, from the Earliest Days Down to the resent. By Rev. J. Macgowan, London Missionary Society. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, &; Co., 1897.

Le Folklore de l'Ile de Kythnos. Conférence donnée a la Société Royale Belge de Géographie le II Novembre, 1897. Par Henri Hauttec?ur. Bruzelles: Havermans, 1898.

L'Ile de Siphnos. Henri Hauttecojur. Bruxelles: Soc. Gén. d'Imprimerie, 1898.

Bergische Sagen. Gesammelt und mit Anmerkungen Herausgegeben. Von Otto Schell. Elberfeld, 1897. Baedekersche Buchdruckerei.

Antiker Aberglaube. Wilhelm Kroll. Hamburg: Richter, 1897.

Zur Albanesischen Volkskunde. Von Dr. Holger Pedersen. Kopenhagen: Siegfried Michaelsen's Nachfolger, 1898.

Weather Lore: a Collection of Proverbs, Sayings, and Rules Concerning the Weather, compiled and arranged by Richard Inwards, F.R.A.S. 3rd. ed., revised and augmented. London: Elliot Stock, 1898.

Deutsche Kinderreime und Verwandtes. Gesamuelt von Friedrich Drosihn. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1897.

Die Sage vom Heiligen Gral, in ihrer Entwicklung bis auf Richard Wagner's Parsifal. Von Eduard Wechssler, Privat-dozent der Romanischen Philologie an der Univ. Halle-Wittenburg. Halle, Max Niemeyer, 1898. By Jessie L. Weston.

Whilst thoroughly concurring in Miss Weston's criticism, I may be allowed to point out that as regards the most perplexing incident of the Grail legend, the question omitted by Perceval at his first visit to the Fisher King, an incident unexplained by every other student of the legend, Dr. Wechssler approves my suggestion. His words are: "Nutt schlagt eine Erklarung vor, die ich tiberans wahrschelnlich finde." What was my suggestion ? That the incident is traceable back to the geasa or taboos of early Irish saga; that it survived on into the mediaeval Arthurian romance, that it was completely misunderstood by the French adapters of the earlier Celtic stories, and that to this misunderstanding is due the obscure and Inconsistent way in which it Is presented by them. The suggestion involves, of course, the existence of a Perceval story innocent of all Christian admixture, based upon themes and conventions familiar in Irish romantic legends of the pre-eleventh century; yet although Dr. Wechssler approves the suggestion, he, as I understand him, rejects what It logically involves, and without which It has no claim to consideration. This is an even more striking instance than those adduced by Miss Weston of the author's inability to see the drift of his own statements and to follow up an argument to its logical conclusion. By Alfred Nutt.