by John Bohannon
![CropperCapture[3].jpg](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/CropperCapture%5B3%5D-thumb-220x241.jpg)
Israelis and Palestinians—after 2 years of intense negotiation and investigation—have mapped some 7000 archaeological sites in the Holy Land, many of them hotly contested. Some of the information had been kept secret by the Israeli military for decades.
![CropperCapture[3].jpg](http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/CropperCapture%5B3%5D.jpg)
Israelis and Palestinians—after 2 years of intense negotiation and investigation—have mapped some 7000 archaeological sites in the Holy Land, many of them hotly contested. Some of the information had been kept secret by the Israeli military for decades. The effort is being recognized with an award presented today at the American Schools of Oriental Research archaeology conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. "Palestinians in particular have not had all the information necessary to them about the location of archaeological sites," says Lynn Dodd, an archaeologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles who helped create the map. "This resource facilitates their preparation for the negotiation table."
This is a most welcome development. The map is a tribute to the commitment and hard work of Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists, working together in dificult times for the past and future progress of the Middle East.