by Jon Lackman | 6 October 2006 | Ancient, Architecture, Journals
The June 2006 Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology features an article by Yuval Yekutieli entitled, “Is Somebody Watching You? Ancient Surveillance Systems in the Southern Judean Desert”: “The Panoptic model of surveillance, which enables a small number of observers to control large numbers of people, is usually considered a modern (18th century AD) invention and a conceptual cornerstone of modern surveillance and disciplinary systems. On the basis of two case studies encountered in a survey near the southwestern edge of the Dead Sea, this study suggests that the concept of surveillance is much older. The first case deals with a quarry from the Roman period, and the second concentrates on an ascent from the Early Bronze Age II–III periods (3000–2400 BC) … In his Panopticon, Bentham elaborated the concept of control through the ubiquitous hidden gaze. Foucault and his followers in academia have hailed Bentham’s invention as emblematic of modern social organization. Yet, the two ancient cases described in this study reveal a very early application of visuality practices that no only work upon the exterior of the body but also ‘from the inside out’ by shaping the individual mind.” (Re Foucault, see also this recent Richard Wolin article.)
