The site of what could be a 15th-century Jewish cemetery in downtown Plzeň, west Bohemia, is pitting two teams of archaeologists against an Israeli company, the local Jewish community and one another. All parties are at odds over how to handle what could be one of the most significant archaeological finds in Europe.

The site is already being compared to the discovery of another 15th-century Jewish cemetery on Prague's Vladislavova street nine years ago, with media bombarding officials with inquiries. That find became a scandal in the global press, as rabbis flew in from around the world to halt construction.

In Plzeň, no such fallout has yet been seen around a 750 million Kč ($33.7 million) shopping-mall site now going up, although local Jewish leaders are saying they worry about disturbing ancient graves. Even the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) has become involved by contacting the archaeologists who did the initial survey of the site.

According to Jewish customs, the remains of the dead must not be moved from the location where they were buried.

"We are very, very concerned," says Philip Carmel, CER's international relations director. "The bones must not be touched. If any archaeological surveys are being done, it must be under authorized rabbinical guidance."

One team of archaeologists, meanwhile, is concerned that the survey is not being done properly and that valuable findings could suffer damage in the investor's haste to complete the project.

The company behind the mall, an Israeli firm called Plaza Centers, has promised to respect Jewish customs but also wants to speed things up so that the mall can open on time next fall.

As tensions mount, another issue complicates the problem further: The cemetery may not even exist.

Strong archival evidence

The digging has barely started, and archaeologists have so far failed to discover any concrete evidence of the cemetery on the site, where city archives indicate that it may have once been.

"I think it's very likely that the cemetery is there," says Radek Široký, an archaeologist at the West Bohemian Institute for the Preservation and Documentation of Landmarks (ZIP), who led initial surveys. "The archival evidence is very strong."

Two teams are currently working side by side in the 100–square-meter (1,076-square-foot) lot known as Plzeňské výstaviště, the archaeologists surveying on one side as workers lay concrete for a parking lot with 450 spaces on the other.

"It's absolutely essential that the construction respects Jewish customs should something turn up," says Tomáš Kraus, secretary of the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities.

Czech law requires investors to carry out archaeological surveys at their own expense prior to building.

"I have faith that an Israeli company will have an understanding how to handle the situation with respect," Kraus says.

Plaza Centers' project manager Martin Kodrle says the company intends to cooperate with the Jewish communities.

"I think it's quite unlikely that the archaeologists will discover anything," he says.

Široký strongly disagrees. He cites evidence from books in Plzeň's city archives that record property transactions dating to the 15th century.

City archive Director Jaroslav Douša says, however, that, although Jewish buildings stood near the future mall, the town's Jewish community at the time was small. According to the archives, some seven Jewish families lived in Plzeň before King Vladislav II expelled them at the beginning of the 16th century.

"If this cemetery is unearthed, it would be a very rare and significant discovery," Široký says. It would be one of five archaeologically surveyed Jewish cemeteries in Europe.

Other sites include medieval Jewish cemeteries in York, in the United Kingdom, and in Barcelona, as well as the cemetery on Prague's Vladislavova street.

'A 50-50 chance'

Široký is not on the team currently digging at Plzeňské výstaviště, and the research has been taken over by the West Bohemian Museum, which began work Oct. 9 and is expected to finish in three months.

The investor stopped working with Široký's team because the efforts — expected to take at least eight months — were proceeding too slowly.

Široký says he's afraid the investor is not devoting sufficient time and resources to the research and that any potential finds could suffer damage as a result.

Jiří Orna, an archaeologist from the West Bohemian Museum leading the current survey, says he's unconvinced that Široký's cemetery will materialize.

"I think we have a 50-50 chance that the cemetery will turn up," he says. "Just because the archives indicate the sale of a property intended for a Jewish cemetery doesn't mean that the cemetery was actually built."

According to Kodrle, the survey is costing the company around 5 percent of the project's 750 million Kč budget.

The parking lot is an essential element in the project, Kodrle says. "Technically, if something does turn up, we could adjust the plan of the building's layout and make it smaller." But that would mean delays.