The Russian-Palestinian Jericho Archaeological Expedition and the Russian Museum and Park Complex in Jericho: Development Prospects

The article offers a general overview of the process of formation of the Jericho Expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences and its activities since the 2010s. It shows the development of the tasks of this small group of scientists, gathered to carry out field work during the construction at the site of the Museum and Park Complex of the Russian Federation in Jericho. Publishing and analytical activities, interaction with the RFBR system later renamed to the Russian Scientific Information Centre (RSIC) and main achievements are presented. The expansion of its tasks to include work on the Russian presence and, in particular, participation in the life of Jerusalem in the middle of the second half of the 19th century, the study of Byzantine and Islamic materials in Jericho, the study of the early museum collections of Russian representatives in the Holy Land, and a wide range of general topics is highligh­ted. The emphasis is placed on the influence of the expedition on the development of interest in eastern Mediterranean themes for the study of the Northern Black Sea region, as well as the inclusion among the practical tasks of the expedition of a historiographical survey of the antiquities of the “Russian sites”.