Contemporary academic research, particularly in archaeology, often revolves around narrowly defined topics. The rise of increasingly sophisticated archaeometric methods has encouraged increasingly fine-grained analysis of excavated material. While this approach has the capacity to yield precise insights into a site’s formation, it often neglects a broader contextual analysis—especially the political, social, and economic forces that shape both the past and our interpretations of it.

Marie-Louise Winbladh’s Archaeology as a Weapon stands in stark contrast to this trend. The book offers a comparative analysis of how archaeology has been politically instrumentalized in Israel, Palestine, Cyprus, and Greece. Its most significant contribution is its examination of this phenomenon not as an isolated national issue, but as part of a cross-regional pattern rooted in colonial and nationalist ideologies.

While the political use of archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean has been studied before, Winbladh’s book breaks new ground by demonstrating that the weaponization of archaeology in all these regions is part of a shared struggle to contend with the legacies of colonialism and the pressures of neoliberalism. The first four chapters, each dedicated to a case study, exemplify how each country’s unique history has shaped the interpretation of the archaeological record as part of identity construction and ethno-national power struggles over land.

To frame this analysis, Winbladh employs the concept of crypto-colonialism, a term coined by Michael Herzfeld (Reference Herzfeld and Dube2009) and recently used in the context of archaeology by Raphael Greenberg and Yannis Hamilakis (Reference Greenberg and Hamilakis2022). It refers to states that, despite their apparent sovereignty, function ideologically as colonial outposts, perceiving themselves as cultural frontiers of societies which are perceived as representing progress and prosperity against cultures perceived as representing decadence.

This framework complements other conceptualizations, such as settler-colonialism. As scholars like Tracy Ireland (Reference Ireland, Ireland and Schofield2015), Emile Badarin (Reference Badarin2021), and Irus Braverman (Reference Braverman2021) have shown, settler-colonial societies seek to replace indigenous communities by creating an alternative cultural heritage that undermines the population’s claim to indigeneity. In settler-colonial societies, indigenous peoples are often excluded from decision-making processes that concern their own heritage. Decolonization, in this context, primarily involves recognizing past transgressions and creating new practices that ensure indigenous participation (Steinman, Reference Steinman2016).

Following this line of reasoning further, crypto-colonial societies are comprised of populations that all have historical connections to the land and thus do not necessarily deny the indigeneity of other groups. Instead, they use cultural heritage to prove their belonging to a broader, powerful international community. The author’s subscription to this argument is evident throughout the book.

Chapters 1 and 3, which focus on Israel and Greece, illustrate how archaeology has been deployed to entrench national narratives. In Israel, emphasizing a Judeo-Christian heritage of the ‘Holy Land’ has been used to present the land’s Muslim—and mainly Palestinian—heritage as insignificant. Similarly, Greece has emphasized its Hellenic and Byzantine past to bolster its image as the cradle of Western civilization, a process that enables the sidelining of the centuries when Greece was under Ottoman rule.

Chapters 2 and 4 shift to Palestine and Cyprus, exploring how archaeology has been used to marginalize Palestinians and Turkish-speaking Cypriots, respectively. In Palestine, Israeli authorities have weaponized archaeological narratives to justify land dispossession and restrict Palestinian access to heritage sites, all under the guise of scientific preservation. In Cyprus, despite archaeological evidence reflecting a diverse tapestry of cultural influences, scholars historically prioritized a narrative of Hellenic dominance. This framing bolstered political aspirations for Enosis (union with Greece) while simultaneously marginalizing Turkish-speaking Cypriots by suggesting they lacked deep-rooted historical ties to the island. In all four of these case studies, it is shown that the utilization of archaeology and cultural heritage for the construction of a specific national identity reinforces the self-perception of the dominant societal groups in each society not only as indigenous, but also—and maybe more importantly—as an integral component of Western culture and ideals. This self-presentation enables the depiction of non-hegemonic groups as an interference and a threat not only to the dominant societies, but to Western values in general.

Winbladh shows that this process extends far beyond narrative control into direct, material consequences. She cites, for example, the demolition of eighty eight homes in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan in 2005, which displaced 1,500 residents. She also highlights how the constant tunnelling for the ‘City of David’ archaeological park, run by the settler organization Elad, has caused Palestinian homes to sink and crack, physically undermining the community from below. In Cyprus, British colonial authorities—and later, Greek Cypriot institutions—used archaeological interpretations to foster division, portraying Greek-speaking Cypriots as the island’s true heirs and framing Turkish-speaking Cypriots as foreign invaders. This narrative persists in policies that obstruct the preservation of cultural heritage in Northern Cyprus.

In the book Winbladh utilizes each of the case studies to demonstrate how this political exploitation of the past creates a clear dissonance between professional interpretations and public narratives. Winbladh conducts a thorough review of the archaeological research in each of the case studies—which increasingly point to the cultural interconnectedness of ancient populations—and even genetic continuities between groups that are in conflict, like Israelis and Palestinians.

At the same time, through the examination of newspaper articles that presented the different archaeological finds discussed in the book she demonstrates that these findings, which many times challenge hegemonic narratives concerning the exclusive historic connection of one group to a region, are routinely ignored in a public discourse that favours exclusivist narratives. For example, while scholars have widely debunked the theory of uninterrupted Hellenization in Cyprus, it remains central to national identity. In Greece, figures like Philip II of Macedon—historically an adversary of classical Athens—have been reappropriated as symbols of Greek national heritage. In Israel, while evidence points to cultural blending of ancient Israelites with neighbouring Canaanite peoples, questioning whether it is in fact even possible to distinguish ancient Israel from its cultural Canaanite surroundings, dominant narratives emphasize distinctiveness and divine entitlement. While Winbladh’s main area of expertise lies in the examination of the case study of Cyprus, the breadth of material she relies on in each of the case studies supports the credibility of her analysis.

This disconnect is sustained by neoliberal norms that create a false separation between the ‘political’ and ‘professional’ spheres. As Winbladh demonstrates, this logic finds its most potent expression in the heritage tourism industry. Quoting archaeologist Rafi Greenberg, she notes that archaeology is often reduced to ‘fodder for the tourist market’. She uses the ‘City of David’ as a prime example, where half a million tourists annually are fed a clear political message: ‘that because David conquered the city for the Jews back then, Jerusalem belongs to the Jews today’. In this way, a curated history is commodified and sold to a global audience, with the profits directly funding the settler organizations that carry out the archaeological work. This practice perfectly illustrates how political constructs are subjugated to economic interests—a move that ultimately reinforces existing power relations (Yiftachel and Avni, Reference Yiftachel and Avni2019; Shiff, Reference Shiff2024).

Winbladh reaffirms this critique, demonstrating how this professional-political divide perpetuates the exclusion of minority groups from shaping their shared heritage. Despite overwhelming evidence challenging nationalist interpretations, archaeologists in all four countries have largely remained silent or complicit. In Greece, there is little effort to counter the selective glorification of Hellenic remains. In Cyprus, the archaeological establishment has often supported policies that neglect Turkish Cypriot heritage. In Israel, universities conduct excavations in the occupied Palestinian territories in violation of international law, with minimal critical reflection on the ideological uses of their work.

Ultimately, comparing these four cases is a step toward the decolonization of archaeological thought in some crypto-colonial societies. As Winbladh demonstrates throughout the different chapters of the book, as well as in its concluding chapter, this process requires a critical analysis of the position archaeologists hold in society and their power to define what constitutes heritage. Only then can the field break free of nationalistic ideologies that attempt to utilize cultural heritage to promote perceptions of supremacy, thus enabling the deconstruction of its procedures and enable a new imagining of our past, present, and future.

Archaeology as a Weapon is an important contribution to the growing field of critical cultural heritage studies, challenging archaeologists to focus not only on the implications their work has as a means to construct a better understanding of ancient societies, but also as a means for the construction of a national identity. Winbladh’s analysis underscores an urgent ethical responsibility that extends beyond the excavation site. Especially in contexts like Israel, Palestine, Cyprus, and Greece, where heritage is a battlefield, archaeologists must actively engage in decolonizing their field and defending pluralism, historical complexity, and justice. This is imperative not only to safeguard the past as a bridge for dialogue between contested societal groups, but also to enable the future of the profession of archaeology itself in each of these countries.