The Metaphor of Marriage in Hosea

Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). The message of Hosea is provocative. For this very reason, the biblical book of Hosea has frustrated and intrigued scholars for over two millennia. Scholarly debate has raged due to the implications the text has for the character of God and His prophet, and the ways in which God interacts with His people. It cannot, however, be claimed that the discussion has been concluded; “from centuries of critical debate only one consensus on the book of Hosea emerges: that it is a disturbing, fragmented, outrageous and notoriously problematic text

Revolution or Evolution: The Development of the Concern for the Preservation of Information Uncovered during Archaeological Excavations in Israel and Palestine (1890-1980)

The ICCROM conference of 1983 in Nicosia represents a turning point in the profession of archaeological conservation; here it was expressed that conservators no longer were concerned only with the preservation of excavated objects, but also with archaeological information. This study of the development of concern for the preservation of information from archaeological excavations in Palestine traces the discipline from Flinders Petrie’s first stratigraphic excavation in the region at the end of the nineteenth century to the heyday of American processual archaeology. Special attention is paid to the development of professionalism in the discipline, as made evident by the archaeologists’ efforts to remain at the cutting edge of their field, publish efficiently, and preserve the material they uncovered. It will be shown that interestingly, despite only excavating for six weeks, Petrie’s ideals in 1890 were closer to those of the 1983 conference than most his successors. The study is a response to those who have claimed that archaeology did not truly begin in the region until the 1950s and that the work done prior to this time is irrelevant for study. It is intended as a reminder of the need for professional humility and of the degree of continuity present in all intellectual disciplines that so easily is forgotten

Sustaining public agency in caring for heritage: critical perspectives on participation through co-design

This thesis explores how heritage organisations in the UK are attempting to build capacity and sustainability in community groups involved in caring for heritage places during austerity. It is based on a broad interdisciplinary reading of critical perspectives on public participation. From this vantage point, I argue that the forms of participation facilitated by participatory initiatives in the sector are constrained by perceptions of public deficits and legitimate heritage expertise, which in turn are bound up in established definitions of heritage and its cultural significance. As a result, participatory initiatives reproduce the characteristics of network governance and incumbent democratisation, whereby community groups who share professional values are asked to augment professional capacity, as opposed to more critical forms of democratisation that foreground public agency. By critically engaging with my three case studies, Archaeology Scotland’s Adopt-a-Monument scheme, Bristol City Council’s Know Your Place interface and associated projects and my own co-design project with three community groups in Yorkshire, I demonstrate how public agency is limited in practice in each case, despite individuals’ critical intentions. In response, I argue that increasing and sustaining public agency in caring for heritage requires carefully designing participatory projects in ways that foreground participants’ skills and interests. My analysis demonstrates that in order to realise such interventions, they must be based in reconceptualised definitions of heritage and more nuanced understandings of participation deficits and legitimate heritage expertise. In doing so, my thesis contributes to the growing body of scholarship that argues increasing public participation is not a critical intervention in and of itself, but a means by which control can be both retained and relinquished