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.