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In Memoriam

Oren Gutfeld

Dr.

Oren

Gutfeld

I am honored to have received most of my training as a field archaeologist and researcher at the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, with additional guidance given from such esteemed research facilities as the Dumbarton Oaks Library and Archives of Harvard University; the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Research Library in Rome; and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where I also completed my post-doctoral studies (2008–2010).

At the start of my journey, I participated in the excavations of the late Prof. Ehud Netzer at the Hasmonean Palaces and Herod's Palaces at Jericho (1993–1994), as well as at his excavations at Masada (1995) and Herodium (1997–2000). It was from Prof. Netzer that I first gained real field experience and a deep understanding and appreciation of Hasmonean and Herodian architecture. During this time I also served as his research assistant, benefiting greatly from his mentorship in learning to conduct my own research.

Alongside the above-mentioned projects, I also took part in fourteen annual excavation seasons (1992–2005) in Netzer's Sepphoris excavations, co-directed with Prof. Zeev Weiss. Here I both honed my skills as a field archaeologist and sharpened my knowledge of the Roman-Byzantine archaeology of the Land of Israel.

My first chance to direct an excavation on my own came in 1996, at the site of Ramla's White Mosque. With it came the challenges not only of overseeing a large-scale project—42 excavation squares and 50 laborers—but also being exposed to Islamic archaeology for the first time. And, indeed, this excavation uncovered remains dated to the very founding of the city in the Umayyad period. In 2010 I published the results of this excavation in the Institute of Archaeology's Qedem monograph series, a report that has come to be viewed as a milestone in the scholarship of the Islamic period in the Land of Israel in general, and of ancient Ramla in particular.

In 1998 my study of the Islamic period continued with my collaboration with the late Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld in an excavation at the southern outskirts of Tiberias. Our work uncovered the largest Islamic-period metal vessel hoard known in the world—numbering some 1000 items—along with 52 of the rare anonymous folles coin type, which depicts the bust of Jesus and features an inscription praising his name. These extremely rare coins thus far constitute the sole examples that have been discovered in an orderly, scientific excavation, which is what has enabled their secure dating to the 10th century. The results of this excavation were also published in the Qedem series (2008).

Following the Tiberias excavations, I reverted to the Second Temple period by beginning a project at another exceptional site: the hewn tunnels of Nahal Sekhakha, at the foot of Hyrcania in the Judean Desert (2000–2006). Dated to the Hasmonean or Herodian period, these deep, narrow tunnels comprise a unique phenomenon in the archaeology of the Land of Israel. Six years, however, after the last excavation season, their purpose has yet to be fully understood. The entrances to two more such tunnels were recently uncovered in a survey I carried out in the vicinity of the original tunnels, and their excavation, planned for the coming year, will hopefully resolve the mystery. It was also over the course of the six years of excavation of the original tunnels that I began and neared completion of my doctoral dissertation (2007).

Under the guidance of Prof. Yoram Tsafrir, I chose to examine two massive building enterprises undertaken by the Emperor Justinian in Jerusalem during the 6th century CE: the Cardo and the Nea Church. These two monuments were originally exposed by the late Prof. Nahman Avigad of the Hebrew University in his excavations in the Old City's Jewish Quarter. His work continued for over fifteen consecutive years, but produced no final report.

Within the framework of my research I gathered and organized the massive amounts of unpublished field reports and plans, processing and analyzing the varied finds, filling in missing details and updating architectural plans and sections. In addition to a straightforward stratigraphic and architectural analysis based upon the physical remains, I also undertook a thorough discussion of the various contemporaneous (Late Byzantine and Early Islamic) literary sources, written by Christian, Muslim and Karaite authors, which contained mention of the Cardo or Nea. I wish to stress that these sources, together with a comparative analysis of other churches in the Byzantine Empire, also aided me in proposing a new, more balanced reconstruction of the Nea Church.

I believe, however, that my dissertation's main contribution to our knowledge of Byzantine-period Jerusalem lies specifically in matters of dating and function. In attributing without a doubt the construction of the southern branch of the Cardo to Justinian, a topic long under dispute, I have also changed what we know of the city layout as a whole during the Byzantine period—as well as in the time of Aelia Capitolina. I was also able to determine the dating of the final abandonment of the church, adding to what we know of the state of Jerusalem's Christian community during the Early Islamic period. My research would become the basis for the fifth volume of the Jewish Quarter Excavations Final Report series (2011).

As part of my work on Avigad's material, and together with Mr. Hillel Geva, editor of the Jewish Quarter Excavation series, I carried out a salvage excavations at the sites of the "Hurvah" and "Tiferet Israel" Synagogues in the Jewish Quarter (2003–2005, 2012-2014). The excavation areas constituted an island of sorts in Avigad's original excavation site, and provided a rare opportunity to literally reexamine his stratigraphic conclusions.

Reverting again to the earlier Classical periods, since 2005 I have excavated at the site of Horbat Beit Loya in the southern Judean Lowland, uncovering the remains of a prosperous Idumean village from the Late Hellenistic period. The site is dotted with finely hewn subterranean agricultural and industrial installations, and also features an imposing watchtower. Also exposed were traces of a conflagration layer attributed to the Hasmonean conquest of Idumea toward the end of the 2nd century BCE, after which the settlement seems to have transitioned into a thriving Jewish village. Evidence of this new demographic—or of the conversion of the existing residents—is reflected in the numerous ritual baths, stone vessels, graffiti of seven-branched candelabra and defaced pagan symbols discovered at the site.

The topic of the Judaization of the Judean Lowland in the early Hasmonean period was at the heart of my research during my post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. I have presented my findings in a number of conferences both in Israel and the United States, with an article presently in an advanced stage of preparation.

The nearly twenty years of fieldwork that I have been involved in have exposed me to sites richly varied in their dating and nature. I would also like to note that years of heading excavation teams has also given me a great deal of expertise in the area of financial management, as well as knowledge of fund-raising for both excavations and finds publication.

Alongside my research and fieldwork, I have always been involved in teaching—be it at the Hebrew University, the University of Michigan, or as a guest lecturer at various institutions. The high marks that I consistently received in student questionnaires reflect the great importance that I have always placed on instruction and on my ability to convey ideas and encourage discussion. But instruction is not limited to the classroom, and I had always supplemented the formal instruction with fieldwork and fieldtrips. Indeed, already as a graduate student, I helped organize a number of trips for the Institute of Archaeology to various archaeological destinations in Israel, Jordan, Greece, and Turkey. Moreover, my excavations themselves have attracted students from universities both in Israel and abroad.

Teaching Fellows Classical Archaeology Department

Shulamit Miller

Shulamit

Miller

shulamit.miller@mail.huji.ac.il

Academia Page

Research Page

Broadly speaking, her research focuses on intercultural interactions between the Roman and Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean, particularly the Levant, and the broader Mediterranean world. Based in the study of archaeology and material culture, her work draws upon several related disciplines, including history of art, social, cultural and economic history, Jewish studies, and anthropology. Her research interests include domestic architecture and domesticity, urban planning and development, mosaic art, Jewish and Christian cultural connectivity, as well as material expressions of cult and religion.

Her doctoral dissertation, Luxury, Prestige and Grandeur: The Mansions and Daily Life of the Social Elite of Judaea-Palestine during the 1^st c. BCE-6^th c. CE, was a study of mansions and elite domestic practices in the southern Levant, using architectural and decorative analyses to address topics of social history from the domestic perspective, allowing for a comparative study of the local elites in relation to peers throughout the Mediterranean basin.

Her current project, under the auspices of Z. Weiss’ research funded by the Israel Science Foundation, focuses on the Christianization of the cities of the Galilee, particularly from the perspective of the transformations of urban space in the Jewish-majority cities of Sepphoris and Tiberias. She concurrently working on the preparation of the final report of Y. Hirschfeld’s excavations at Tiberias, including finds spanning the entire first millennium CE.

Teaching:

Assistant instructor – Introduction to Greek and to Roman Archaeology. Instructor – A Matter of Routine: Daily Life in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Ostia.

Excavations: She is currently the assistant director of the excavations at Sepphoris. Past excavations include: co-director of the excavations at Tiberias; assistant director of The New Tiberias Excavation Project; area supervisor at the excavations at Tiberias, Kh. Wadi Hamam and Ramat Hanadiv.

Select Publications:

Miller, S. and Leibner, U. 2018. “The Synagogue Mosaics,” in: U. Leibner (ed.) Khirbet Wadi Ḥamam: A Roman-Period Village and Synagogue in the Lower Galilee, Qedem Reports 13 (Jerusalem: The Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem), 144-186.

Miller, S. 2017. “Markers of Pagan Cults in a Jewish City: Rethinking the Hadrianeum of Tiberias” in: O. Tal and Z. Weiss (eds.) Expressions of Cult in the Southern Levant in the Greco-Roman Period: Manifestations in Text and Material Culture, (Turnhout: Brepols), 95-107.

Miller, S. 2016. “The Urban Plan of Tiberias from its Foundation until the Islamic Conquest in Light of New Discoveries,” in: J. Patrich, O. Peleg-Barkat, and E. Ben-Yosef (eds.) Arise, Walk the Land – Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Land of Israel in Memory of Yizhar Hirschfeld at the Tenth Anniversary of his Demise. (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society), 221-232, 255* (Hebrew with an English abstract).

Miller, S. 2015. “The Late Antique Mosaics of Tiberias: Artistic Trends and Architectural Contexts,” Eretz-Israel 31, 247-255 (Hebrew with an English abstract).

Leibner, U. and Miller, S. 2010. “A Figural Mosaic in the Synagogue at Khirbet Wadi Hamam,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 23, 238-264.

Research Fellows Classical Archaeology Department

Wayne Horowitz

Prof.

Wayne

Horowitz

whorowitz@mscc.huji.ac.il

Areas of Interest: Ancient Mesopotamian Literature, Religion, Science, Astronomy.

For most of my adult life I have lived in Israel and taught Assyriology at The Hebrew University, but before that I was born in the United States, and studied for my Ph.D in England. My B.A. was in Classical and Oriental Studies (Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Akkadian) at Brandeis University in the United States. It was there that I first met the Ancient Near East and its cuneiform script, and decided to continue my studies in this direction. After a year at the University of California at Berkeley, I moved to England, to study with the great Professor W.G. Lambert at Birmingham University, and to work with the tablets of The British Museum. My Ph.D. topic was Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography, a study of the physical universe, Heaven, Earth, and Underworld, as they are represented in cuneiform sources, both Sumerian and Akkadian. After completing my Ph.D. in 1986, my family came to Israel as olim chadashim (new immigrants), and I began my now nearly 30 years of work at the Hebrew University, as a teacher of Sumerian and Akkadian texts and traditions, with a particular interest in literature, religion, science, and most of all ancient astronomy. Over this time I have written on a wide range of topics relating to the Ancient Near East, and supervised many fine graduate students in their M.A. and Ph.D. research. For many years, I was also a key member of the faculty of the Rothberg International School, serving as Academic Advisor in both the Undergraduate and Graduate Programs of the school for overseas students, and participating in the development of the M.A. Program in Bible and Ancient Near East.

The completion of my most recent book, The Three Stars Each: The Astrolabes and Related Texts, now accepted for publication as Archiv für Orientforschung, beiheft 33, represents both an end and a new beginning for me and my academic career. This book, consisting of over 800 pages of manuscript in its final form, has occupied most of my professional life. I began my research on the Astrolabe group of cuneiform texts in 1991, and spent the following years and decades discovering new manuscripts in various tablet collections around the world, as I tried to understand the history and impact of this group of astronomical texts on Mesopotamian and world civilization. Now, that the final pieces of this puzzle have come together, I expect the book to appear in press sometime in late 2014 or early 2015.

My other main area of research at the Hebrew University has been the study and publication of cuneiform documents from The Land of Israel. This work began with an invitation to study and publish newly discovered tablets at Hazor in the 1990's and exanded into a research project to collect and publish all the known cuneiform texts from the Ancient Land of Israel. The project has continued on long after the publication of our 2006 Cuneiform in Canaan volume. A trickle of tablets continue to be recovered at Hazor, and I have also recently had the honor to publish the first two cuneiform tablets ever found in Jerusalem. Such documents have been published by myself and my research team in primary publication in The Israel Exploration Journal, and will be revisited in a revised 2015 2^nd edition of Cuneiform in Canaan to be published by Eisenbrauns in The United States.

In addition to these two main projects, I have published a number of articles relating to my main interests in Ancient Near Eastern astronomy, science, and religion, but with an eye towards the full richness of the cuneiform corpus which has allowed me to publish on topics as far afield as Sumerian as a tonal language based on parallels with phenomena in Chinese, and the domestication of the camel. To this, of course, should be added the joys of teaching, particularly my pleasure at having shepherded five research students to their Ph.D. degrees, with three more officially on the way. Further, my growing international reputation has allowed me to teach and study with colleagues and students around the world, for example during my 2006-07 sabbatical in China, and during a sabbatical in 2012, with colleagues in the Canadian Arctic, California and Australia.

With my responsibilities to the Astrolabe project now completed, I am ready to begin a time of new projects and challenges, which should bring me forward in time (unbelievably) to retirement. I envision three major projects for the coming years. First, remaining in the realm of cuneiform astronomical texts, I plan to write a monograph length study and edition of a text known as The Great Star List, which like the Astrolabes themselves has intrigued me since my days as a graduate student in Birmingham. This work, which presents a mixture of scientific astronomy, astrology, and astral lore, is known from a number of exemplars at the British Museum, and now one example held in The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. While at Berkeley in the Winter of 2012, I had the opportunity to study this tablet and found that it holds the key to restoring and understanding The Great Star List as a whole; a text which hitherto had been misunderstood. In fact, I am now able to propose with near certainty that what we know as The Great Star List is in fact a set of texts for which we have canonical and alternate versions. The Great Star List is the last remaining long work of the cuneiform astronomical tradition which has yet to be fully edited. My planned edition will in a sense complete the work on the cuneiform astronomical corpus begun by the fathers of Assyriology in the 1800's, making all the major works of the cuneiform astronomical tradition finally fully available to the academic community and other interested parties.

My second project is centered on the Southern Hemisphere. While on sabbatical in Australia, I joined with colleagues there to begin a project to collect and publish the cuneiform inscriptions held in Australian and New Zealand collections. This project, now known as CANZ (Cuneiform in Australia and New Zealand), is in its first stages but already has produced two preliminary short articles, and a major discovery, that the Otago Museum in Dunedin New Zealand holds a collection of approximately 150 tablets, making it the largest known collection in the Southern Hemisphere. My colleagues in CANZ and myself are now working to publish this collection in book form.

My third project brings me to the opposite side of the world from Australasia. In recent years, I have become very interested in the world of ethno- and archaeo-astronomy. This interest originated when I was invited to a set of conferences on the subject, culminating in a visit to archaeo-astronomical sites in the American southwest, mostly in New Mexico. As I prepared my lectures for these conferences, and learned the discipline and techniques of these new (to me) fields, I realized that the cuneiform data base, with its thousands of cuneiform tablets relating to astronomy and astrology, formed the greatest reservoir of untapped knowledge for native astronomical traditions of the type being studied by my colleagues in the realm of ethno-astronomy. After lengthy contemplation of the issues involved, I formulated a preliminary research question which I hoped would guide my research: How much of what we see in a given culture’s astronomical traditions is universal, i.e. common to all mankind, and how much is particular to that culture alone? In search of answers to this question I have begun intensive anthropological field work on the astronomy of the cultures of northern Canada, these being as far away from Ancient Mesopotamian astronomy in time, place, and experience as possible: north rather than south, hot rather than cold, and with the sun, moon, and stars as seasonal phenomena in the far north (the midnight sun in Summer, noon time stars in Winter), rather than daily phenomena in the temperate zone to which Mesopotamia belongs. A generous research grant from The Halbert Center for Canadian Studies of The Hebrew University allowed me to pursue this line of inquiry in the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada in the winter of 2012. For the past two winters, I have continued this study with colleagues from the Gwich’in People of the Mackenzie Delta under the supervision of The Gwich’in Social and Cultural Institute (GSCI), and with the cooperation of The Aurora College of The Northwest Territories, and in Alaska with colleagues at The University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF). The first publications resulting from this research may be expected in 2015-16, and will include a survey of what I have learned thus far. The ultimate aim of the Canadian side of this project is to produce a book on Gwich’in astronomy and cosmology together with the GSCI. In the long term, I hope to use the tools and methods that I am learning from the GSCI and my Alaskan colleagues to publish a book-length study of the cuneiform astronomical tradition from the perspective of ethno-astronomy, using the cuneiform corpus as my data base in-lieu of living informants. In addition, I hope to someday be able to publish a comparative work examining Mesopotamian ethno-astronomy in relation to the astronomical traditions of the peoples of northern Canada, and perhaps Australia.

There are also a number of smaller projects, most notably a joint work with colleagues in North America to publish a newly identified group of cuneiform texts that describe how to draw constellations that is now nearing completion. To this I can also add my involvement with The Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem which will allow me to make an important contribution to the field of Jewish History, as well as Assyriology, through the museum’s December 2014 exhibition of an archive of administrative tablets from the town of Al-Yahudu, the City of the Jews, this being a new Jerusalem in southern Babylonia. These tablets, the earliest of which date to the 570's BCE, document the life and times this exilic Judean community on Babylonian soil at the start of the Babylonian exile. Beyond all this, I look forward to spending much of the next decade training the generation of scholars who will eventually take my place and bring my field of study forward into the middle of the 21^st century.

Faculty Emeriti Civilizations of the Ancient Near East Department

Yigal Shiloh

Prof.

Yigal

Shiloh

1937-1987

Yigal Shiloh was born in Haifa in 1937. After completing his high school education there at a trade school, he joined Kibbutz Hulata and served in the army as a paratrooper. In 1960 he began his studies of archaeology and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, obtaining his B.A. in 1965 and his M.A. in 1969, both summa cum laude. In 1975 he was awarded his Ph.D. for his thesis on 'Foreign Influence on the Masonry of Palestine in the Tenth and Ninth Centuries B.C.' He started his career at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University, in 1964 as an assistant and instructor. In 1975 he was appointed Lecturer and in 1978 Senior Lecturer. During this period, he also obtained several scholarships abroad and served as Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University (1975 1976), as Visiting Professor at the University of California at San-Diego (1980), and again as Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (1980-1981).

Shiloh's first experience as a field archaeologist was in 1961 with N. Avigad in the Judean Desert Caves. From then onwards, he participated in many excavations: at Ramat Raḥel with Y. Aharoni; at Arad, Tell Nagila and the Citadel of Jerusalem with Ruth Amiran; at Masada, Hazor and Megiddo with Yigael Yadin. In 1978 he was appointed Director of the City of David Archaeological Project, thus becoming responsible for the excavation, restoration and preservation of biblical Jerusalem. Here Shiloh displayed his ability not only as a field archaeologist working on a topigraphically and stratigraphically difficult site, but also as an administrator and educator. He showed courageous leadership and determination in withstanding the pressure of religious fanatics who objected to the excavation of certain areas of the City of David.

In 1982, Shiloh was appointed Associate Professor in archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University. From 1983 to 1986, Shiloh served as Head of the Institute, while in 1986-1987, he was Visiting Professor at Duke University, North Carolina. Shiloh's publications, both in Hebrew and English, are numerous. Many of his articles deal with the questions of ancient architecture in this country, and the City of David excavations. He was the author of two volumes of the Qedem series: The Proto-Aeolic Capital and Israelite Ashlar Masonry (Qedem 11, 1979), and Excavations at the City of David I (Qedem 19, 1984). In recognition of his contribution to the uncovering of Jerusalem's past, its intensive study and preservation, Yigal Shiloh was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in Archaeology by the Jerusalem Municipality shortly before his untimely death at the age of fifty.

Published in Israel Exploration Journal 38: 92–93

In Memoriam

Benjamin Mazar

Prof.

Benjamin

Mazar

1906-1995

"Benjamin Mazar was a prominent historian and archeologist who pioneered a synthesis of biblical research with historical geography in Israel (…)

A scholar of Jewish history in the biblical period and a former president of the Hebrew University, Professor Mazar was best known in Israel for directing large-scale excavations along the ancient western and southern walls of the area known to Jews as the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The decade-long dig near the Jewish shrine of the Western Wall was begun after Israel captured the Old City in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It yielded finds going back to the period of the First Temple in the seventh and eighth centuries B.C.

"His main contribution was the synthesis of biblical and archeological research," said Professor Mazar's nephew, Amihai Mazar, also an archeologist. "He laid the foundations for integrative research that combined the study of archeology, the Bible, ancient Near Eastern sources and historical geography."

Professor Mazar was born in Russia in 1906. He received a doctorate at University of Giessen in Germany before moving in 1929 to Palestine, then under British mandate, where he became secretary of the Palestine Exploration Society.

He joined the Hebrew University in 1943, and in 1951 he was appointed professor of the history of the Jewish people in the biblical period and the archeology of Palestine. He became rector of the university in 1952 and served as president from 1953 to 1961 before retiring in 1974.

In 1968 he was awarded Israel's highest cultural award, the Israel Prize, for his work in the field of Jewish studies. He was a founder of Israel's first Government department of antiquities and became president of the Israel Exploration Society in 1959.

He directed excavations at several sites in Israel, and published more than 300 articles and collections of his writings. Two volumes appeared in English: "Biblical Israel: State and People," published by the Magnes Press in Jerusalem in 1982, and "The Early Biblical Period: Historical Essays," published in Jerusalem in 1986 by the Israel Exploration Society. He was also chief editor of the Biblical Encyclopedia.

Professor Mazar is survived by a son, Ori Mazar, a brother, Hanoch Mazar, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren."

Written by Joel Greenberg in The NY Times, September 11, 1995, Section D, Page 13.

In Memoriam

Dan Barag

Prof.

Dan

Barag

1935-2009

Born in 1935 in London, to parents who would later become well-known Freudian psychoanalysts, and brought up in Tel Aviv, Dan Barag's interest in archaeology was kindled at an early age. In 1956 he moved to Jerusalem to study archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

His Ph.D., completed in 1971 under the guidance of Prof. Nahman Avigad and Prof. Donald Harden, was devoted to the study of glass vessels in ancient Palestine; this was followed by a long list of articles on the ancient glass industry. His publications and accomplishments in the study of ancient glass earned him international recognition, and he served a term as Vice President of the Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre. He was also interested in the study of ancient Jewish art.

His main specialisation, however, was the field of numismatics. He served for some 30 years as President of the Israeli Numismatics Society and as the editor of its journal, Israel Numismatic Journal, since 1980. Dan Barag participated in several Hebrew University excavations, including Tell Qasile, Hanita, Nahariya and Beth She‘arim, and was involved in the publication of their finds. He headed the expedition that exposed the synagogue at ‘En Gedi, a structure that served the local community from the third century CE until the end of the Byzantine period.

In 1968, upon his return from London, where he had worked on his Ph.D., he served as assistant to Prof. Nahman Avigad. In 1970, Dan Barag joined the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University, and he continued to teach there until his retirement in 2003. He was a dedicated teacher, imparting to his students extensive knowledge in a wide variety of fields pertaining to the material culture of the Land of Israel, from the Hellenistic period to the end of the Byzantine period.

From 1969 to 1975, Dan Barag served in various capacities in Israel Exploration Journal, first as associate editor, then as co-editor with Prof. Michael Avi-Yonah, and from 1973 as editor. He served on the Editorial Advisory Board of IEJ until his death.

Dan Barag wrote over 150 articles and studies, published in Israel and abroad, on diverse topics, ranging from Hellenistic to Hasmonaean and Herodian times and including the Bar Kokhba Revolt and Crusader Jerusalem. He also made important contributions to the fields of historical geography, bullae and weights, burial tombs, Herodian architecture and Jewish art. His most notable publication is his book, Catalogue of Western Asiatic Glass in the British Museum (London, 1985). Dan Barag's wide-ranging work will undoubtedly serve as a lasting testament to his contribution to the archaeological research of Israel.

Z. Weiss, Israel Exploration Journal 60: 114–115

In Memoriam

Ephraim Stern

Prof.

Ephraim

Stern

1934-2018

“Professor Ephraim Stern, Chair of the Board of Directors of Israel Exploration Society and one of Israel’s most outstanding archaeologists – a researcher, teacher, colleague and loyal friend – passed away on 23 March 2018, at the age of 84.

Born in Haifa in 1934, Ephraim studied at the Hebrew Reali School. He then served in the Israeli army attaining the rank of officer and of major in the reserves. Upon completion of this military service he studied archaeology and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, earning B.A. and M.A. degrees. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the Persian period in the Land of Israel under the supervision of Prof. Benjamin Mazar. Ephraim’s doctoral thesis was and remains a substantial scientific contribution. At the time, the Persian period was not at the forefront of archaeological research in the Land of Israel and its importance was largely unrecognized. Ephraim’s significant study, in which he assembled, analyzed and summarized the data and the finds, changed this. His dissertation was published as a book, first in Hebrew and then in English (Material Culture of the Land of the Bible in the Persian Period 538-322 B.C., Warminster 1982), and was awarded the Izhak Ben-Zvi Prize.

Ephraim Stern was the first scholar to note the continuity of material culture between the Iron Age and the Persian period. Among his conclusions I shall mention the dating of the so-called lion seal impressions stamped on many jar handles found in the region of Judah. Ephraim dated them to the earlier part of the Persian period (see his paper in BASOR 202 [1971]: 6-16) – a chronological conclusion that, in my view, firmly holds to this day, despite recent challenges based upon new excavations.

After completion of his studies Ephraim worked for some time as a staff member and then as illustrations editor of the Hebrew Encyclopaedia Biblica. He was one of the first teachers at the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Studies of the newly founded Tel Aviv University. Eventually, at the invitation of Prof. Yigael Yadin, Ephraim joined the academic staff of the newly established Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he taught until his retirement in 2002, when he became Professor Emeritus. Ephraim has many students who now hold leading positions at the various Israeli archaeological institutions. For several years he served as the head of Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ephraim dedicated much of his time and energy to archaeological excavations. As a student he joined excavations at Hazor, which became the providing ground for what developed into an Israeli school of archaeological excavation. In cooperation with Prof. Itzhak Beit-Arieh, he excavated Tel Kedesh in the Jezereel Valley on behalf of Tel Aviv University. He later excavated in Tel Mevorakh in the Sharon Plain on behalf of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Extensive reports of these excavations were published in due course. While a graduate student, Ephraim joined the excavations directed by Prof. Benjamin Mazar at ‘En Gedi, where he excavated the remains of the Persian period. Many years later, after Prof. Mazar’s death, Ephraim completed the final excavation report for publication, and thus the ‘En Gedi excavations reached its fitting conclusion (‘En Gedi Excavations I. Final Report, Jerusalem, 2007).

The culmination if Ephraim Stern’s excavations was undoubtedly the impressive project he initiated at Tel Dor in the Sharon Plain. This is the site of ancient Dor, situated on the Mediterranean coast, one of the cardinal sites from the biblical and later periods in the Land of Israel. Here Ephraim led a systematic large-scale excavation project from 1980-2000. Upon his retirement Ephraim wisely and generously transferred the directorship of the excavation project to his students, believing that the excavation should be continued under the aegis of the archaeologists of the younger generation. A popular book on Dor and its excavation was published by Ephraim in Hebrew and English (Dor – Ruler of the Seas, Jerusalem, 2000).

The work at Tel Dor led Ephraim to investigate the settlement of the Sea Peoples in the northern part of the country, Assyrian domination in the Land of Israel and Phoenician culture, which in the first millennium BCE spread to the lands bordering the Mediterranean. Ephraim’s book on the Northern Sea Peoples was published a few years ago (The Material Culture of the Northern Sea Peoples in Israel, Winona Lake IN, 2013), and a comprehensive book on the Phoenicians was nearing completion at the time of his death.

Over the course of half a century Ephraim published a great number of books and papers related to the archaeology of the Land of Israel, a few of which are cited above. Noteworthy is his paper summarizing the material culture of the Land of Israel in the iron Age, which delineates the distinct developments in different parts of the country (published in BA 38 [1975]), and his comprehensive book on the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian periods (published in 2001 by Doubleday as part of the Anchor Bible Reference Library). Following his retirement Ephraim vigorously continued his research and writing until the time of his death. The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, published by Israel Exploration Society, is yet another cornerstone of Ephraim Stern’s life work. Ephraim was the main editor and the living spirit behind this significant project, which is extensively used by researchers and students worldwide. The NEAEHL was published in four volumes, in Hebrew (1992) and English (1993). A fifth, supplementary, volume in English appeared in 2008.

In 1968 Prof. Yigael Yadin and Joseph Aviram initiated the publication of Qadmoniot, a popular journal in the Hebrew language dedicated to archaeology and ancient history of the Land of Israel. Yadin was the first editor, and Ephraim Stern served as deputy editor from the first issue. In 1978 Ephraim became the editor and with the exception of five years (1994-1998) continued to edit the journal until his passing. Qadmoniot has become the main Hebrew-language archaeological journal, and its high standards are largely due to Ephraim’s dedicated and excellent editorial work.

Finally, Ephraim’s activities in the public sphere should be mentioned. For several years he headed the Institute for Research on Eretz-Israel at Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi. In 2005 Ephraim was elected Chair of the Board of Directors of Israel Exploration Society, a position he held until his death. For many years he chaired the Archaeological Council if the Israel Antiquities Authority and was a member of the Archaeological Council of the Archaeological Staff Officer of Judaea and Samaria.

Over the years Ephraim’s archaeological work received due recognition. On the occasion of his 75^th birthday, Vol. 29 of Israel Exploration Society’s Eretz-Israel series was published in his honour. This volume includes papers written in Hebrew and English by Ephraim’s colleagues and students in Israel and abroad. In the course of his long career Ephraim received several prized and awards in recognition of his achievements. In addition to the Izhak Ben-Zvi Prize mentioned above, he was the recipient of the Percia Schimmel Award of the Israel Museum and the prestigious Emet Prize, awarded in coordination with the Prime Minister’s Office in Israel.

I have known Ephraim Stern and followed his scientific and public endeavors and his scholarly achievements for over sixty years. Throughout this period I marvelled at his ability to sensibly and fairly balance his work and activities, avoiding the pitfalls of the bitter quarrels from which the academic world often suffers. He had no enemies, and his honest, pleasant and friendly character was praised by all.

Ephraim is survived by Tami, his devoted wife and life companion, mother of his two sons. Tami was supportive of Ephraim’s work, significantly contributing to his achievements and success over the years, no the mention to his quality of life.

The passing of Ephraim Stern leaves a void that will not be easily filled. We shall miss his as a researcher, colleague and loyal friend. May his memory be blessed. “

Written by David Ussishkin In Israel Exploration Journal - Ephraim Stern Memorial Volume, Vol. 68 (1) Jerusalem Israel 2018

In Memoriam

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