• Expanding the ethnic, historical and theological insights that come from the geographical mapping of archeological findings such as names.

• Enriching our understanding of the relationship between Archaeology and the biblical text through the comparison of archaeological and biblical onomastica.

• New approaches to statistical authenticity testing of unprovenanced groups of artifacts.

Projects:

• Creating and maintaining a website—onomasticon.net—a comprehensive collection of personal names and their various characteristics from the Iron II Southern Levant. The personal names were collected from epigraphic artifacts found in archaeological excavations of Israel, Judah, and neighboring kingdoms. These artifacts were gathered from corpora, excavation reports, books on Iron Age II epigraphy, and relevant journal articles. The onomasticon can be easily searched according to its different categories, such as name, artifact type, artifact site, territorial affiliation, and prefixed/suffixed theophoric element. The website includes a list of articles illustrating the use of this digital tool for onomastic, archaeological, and biblical research.

• Creating a database of all personal names mentioned in the Bible in the context of the Land of Israel and Transjordan during the First Temple period. Each entry in the database includes an individual mentioned in the bible with all the forms of his/her name(s), biblical source for the name(s), date by century, political affiliation, type of name, theophoric element, and more.

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.

Ongoing projects

• Co-director of the Tel Abel-Beth Maacah excavations, (Tel Abel-Beth Maacah excavations on Facebook) with Dr. Naama Yahalom-Mack and Dr. Bob Mullins
• Publication of the Tel Rehov excavations, under the direction of Prof. Amihai Mazar
• Typological and technological study of the Iron Age II Black juglets, with Dr. Anat Cohen-Weinberger
• Editor, Qedem Monograph Series of the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem