A Chosen People in Foreign Lands: Historical Archaeological Approaches to the Jewish Diaspora

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Since the inception of the field of historical archaeology, sites focusing on diasporic and marginalized populations have received interest from archaeologists. Despite voluminous publications, organizations and journals specifically dealing with various diaspora populations, Jews, a people and an experience from which the term originates, have been all but ignored in historical archaeology. The concept of diaspora has evolved in modern scholarship to encompass a variety of lived experiences through an understanding of diasporic theory as either forced exile or continuing exclusion. To this end, sites of Jewish antiquity have been interpreted through the classical model of diaspora, yet historical Jewish contexts have rarely been viewed through this adapted conception of the term. This session brings together a selection of scholarship that directly deals with the archaeology of the Jewish diaspora in the historic period from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives.

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-5 of 5)

  • Documents (5)
Documents
  • Foundations of a Community: The Synagogue Compound in Early Modern Barbados (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Derek Miller.

    Studies of diasporic peoples often highlight their global connections. Moreover, diasporic peoples are always dispersed from somewhere. However, despite this emphasis on global connections and movement away from a homeland, diasporic peoples also create particular places in local settings. These places play an important role in the maintenance of diasporic cultural traditions and identity. In the 1650s a group of Jews arrived on the English island of Barbados and established a small...

  • The Jewish Diaspora across Greater Boston’s landscape: A feminist analysis of complex intersections between race, ethnicity, class, gender, and religion (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Suzanne Spencer-Wood.

    A feminist analysis reveals that changing gender ideologies, identities, and practices were integral to the material spread of Jewish communities across Greater Boston’s landscape. First, conflict was resolved between waves of immigrants of different Jewish sects, ethnicities, and classes. Then processes of change are analyzed, primarily the influences of Anglo-American culture and Protestantism on Jewish gender systems and religious practices. This research reveals the diversity and complexity...

  • The Politics and Ideology of Jewish Agricultural Colonies in 19th Century America (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tatiana Niculescu.

    Historians have long debated whether the Jewish agricultural colonies (JACs) that arose in 19th century America were utopian communities or founded on some other ideological basis. High modernism, a popular ideology at this time, was based on four main tenets: a strong confidence in scientific progress; attempts to master nature to meet human needs; an emphasis on rendering complex environments or concepts legible; and a disregard for geographical and social contexts. I argue that JACs were...

  • St Eustatius Jews: Reflections on Social, Economic and Physical Landscapes (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only R. Grant Gilmore.

    The Jews of St Eustatius have been examined a few times over the past decades. However, recent excavations and documentary work have revealed new insights into how this important section of the population fulfilled a unique niche in island and Atlantic World society. Details regarding the Synagogue Honen Dalim, the mikveh and the cantor’s home provide a framework to build up a deeper understanding of Jewish social, economic and physical landscapes. The Statian Jewish Diaspora will be shown...

  • Swinging Fowl in the Name of the Lord: A Possible Jewish Ritual Sacrifice on the Arkansas Frontier (2014)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only David Markus.

    Archaeological investigations at the Block family home in Washington, Arkansas undertaken since the 1980s have explored the private life of the first documented Jewish immigrant family to the state of Arkansas. Excavations at the detach kitchen of the property revealed an articulated buried turkey skeleton. This fowl burial was initially interpreted as an African ritual sacrifice in light of the discovery of a slave quarters adjacent to the kitchen in 2010. While this interpretation easily fits...