Khirbet el-Lauz Revisited: Lessons from the Renewed Destruction of a Vulnerable Heritage Site
Abstract
I first became professionally involved with Khirbet el-Lauz
in 2007, in response to a pattern of repeated destructive
looting of the site stretching back decades. At that time, I
conducted a thorough survey, carried out some limited excavations,
engaged the local community on various levels, and then
published two articles presenting my findings (Al-Houdaliah
2008, 2009). After a hiatus of nearly ten years, punctuated by
occasional site visits by myself and others, the place has now
been attacked and severely damaged once again. However
disheartening this new devastation may be, out of it one must
seek to derive new understandings—I have even engaged some
of the looters face-to-face!—and also to find glimmers of hope
for the future, all of which it is my purpose to share in this space.