An Archaeologist Facing the Jerusalem Myth: Yana Chekhanovets’ Book “Jerusalem on Earth and Underground”
Keywords:
Jerusalem, Old City, archaeology, archaeological methods, British Mandate, phenomenology of architectureAbstract
In 2023, the “Slovo” publishing house released a book by archaeologist Yana Chekhanovets, a major specialist in Christian archaeology of the Holy Land, dedicated to Jerusalem. “Jerusalem of the Earth and Underground” is a unique study, since it introduces the reader in a popular form to the most serious problems of the archaeology of Jerusalem, which still has many dark spots. The author, himself a resident of the Old City, offers 40 essays in which he reveals various aspects of the existence of Jerusalem, its monuments, its inhabitants, and its researchers. As a result, Jerusalem is presented as a complex psychological space created by the geniuses of past eras, in which an equal role belongs to the descendants of King David and the Roman urban planning genius and the British pro-Jerusalem Council of 1917, and the inhabitants of the past and present city. Presented in this way, “Jerusalem of the Earth and Underground” appears as unique material for researchers of the phenomenology of the city and the social theory of the city. The past, revealed by the archaeologist, gives meaning to the present.
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