Archeology and the Ancient Middle East

Prof. Arlette David

Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near East

Asia-Africa Institute

0544-487-646

arlette.david@mail.huji.ac.il

Institute of Archaeology, room no. 514

Personal Website

Research Fields

Semiotics of hieroglyphic script and Egyptian art;
Middle and Neo-Egyptian languages;
ancient Egyptian legal languages and legal system;
Egyptian(izing) finds in Israel;
iconography of kingship in Karnak and Amarna

About

Trained as a lawyer (LLM from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) and as an Egyptologist (theHebrew University of Jerusalem), Arlette David has published various interdisciplinary studies on the ancient Egyptian legal system, its conceptual frame, textual productions, linguistic registers, and legal categorization embedded in the hieroglyphic and hieratic scripts. Today, Prof. David investigates the interplay between pictures, script, and texts in various contexts, with new analyses of Egyptian works of art. Her recent work concerns pictures of kingship at the times of Akhenaten and Nefertiti from Karnak and Amarna.

Selected Publications

2021 Book: Renewing Royal Imagery - Akhenaten and Family in the Amarna Tombs (https://brill.com/view/title/57605)

2021 Article: “Akhenaten and Nefertiti's Morning Toilet in Karnak” (Journal of Near Eastern Studies 80/2)

2021 Article: “Akhenaten's Window and the Aegean Connection” (Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 30)

2010 Book: The Legal Register of Ramesside Private Law Instruments (Harrassowitz)

2006 Book: Syntactic and Lexico-Semantic Aspects of the Legal Register in Ramesside Royal Decrees (Harrassowitz)

Selected Awards

Prize of the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Contest 1986

Max Schlomiuk Prize 2003

Teaching

B.A.

Reading Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Ancient Egyptian Artists: Life, Work, Models, Techniques

Middle Egyptian for beginners

Middle Egyptian intermediary level

Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Art and Culture (Predynastic to Second Intermediate Period)

Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Art and Culture (New Kingdom to Ptolemaic Period)

Art as a System of Signs: Decoding Ancient Egyptian Images

Patterns of continuity and change in ancient Egyptian art

M.A.

Despair, Disgust, and Life's Chaos: Ancient Egyptian Laments

Ramesside for Beginners

Egypt in Israel: Ancient Egyptian Inscriptions Found in Israel

Entertaining an Egyptian King with Tales of Magic: Papyrus Westcar

Ancient Egyptian Artifacts: Magic and the Senses

Killing Pharaoh: The Teaching of King Amenemhat I

Shipwrecked in Wonderland: An Ancient Egyptian Mythical Narrative

Working with Ancient Egyptian Material Culture

Contribution of ancient Egyptian law to the history of thought

Ancient Egyptian tales of adventure

The Levant and Egypt, archaeology and art: cultural transfers

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Dr. Uri Davidovich

Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near East

Archaeology Institute

+972546604676

uri.davidovich@mail.huji.ac.il

Institute of Archaeology Room 510

Personal Website

Research Fields

Landscape archaeology
Regional archaeology
Archaeology of natural caves
Urbanization and social complexity
Archaeological survey

About

Dr. Uri Davidovich is a lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, Biblical Section. His research interests revolve around environmental and landscape archaeology, especially of marginal landscapes; field and analytical methods of archaeological surveys; regional archaeology of the Judean Desert; human activity in natural caves; and the development of complex societies surrounding the transition to urbanism (Chalcolithic period and Early Bronze Age). Davidovich’s current studies include: settlement dynamics in the Upper Galilee in the Early Bronze Age and early urbanization in the southern Levant, involving multi-annual excavations at the mega-site of Tel Qedesh; archeology and landscape of refuge in cliff caves of the Judean Desert during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age; environmental and cultural changes in the Judean Desert during the Holocene (together with Dr. Nimrod Marom, University of Haifa); and comparative archaeology of ancient activity patterns in complex caves in the southern Levant.

Selected Publications

Davidovich U.PI, Ullman M.PI, Langford B.C, Frumkin A.C, Langgut D.C, Yahalom-Mack N.C, Abramov J.C, Marom N.C 2018. “Distancing the dead: Late Chalcolithic burials in large maze caves in the Negev Desert, Israel.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 379: 113-152. DOI: 10.5615/bullamerschoorie.379.0113

Wachtel I.PI, Davidovich U.PI, corres. auth. 2021. “Qedesh in the Galilee: The emergence of an Early Bronze Age Levantine megasite.” Journal of Field Archaeology 46: 260-274. DOI: 10.1080/00934690.2021.1901025

Lazagabaster I.A.PI, Rovelli V.PI, Fabre P.-H.C, Porat R.C, Ullman M.C, Davidovich U.C*, Lavi T.C, Ganor A.C, Klein E.C, Weiss K.C, Nuriel P.C, Meiri M.C, Nimrod MaromPI. 2021. “Rare crested rat subfossils unveil Afro-Eurasian ecological corridors synchronous with early human dispersals.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2021: 118(31): e2105719118. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2105719118

Mascher M.PI, Schünemann V.J.PI, Davidovich U.C, Himmelbach A.C, Hübner S.C, Fahima T.C, Korol A.C, David M.C, Marom N.C, Riehl S.C, Schreiber M.C, Vohr S.H.C, Green R.E.C, Dawson I.K.C, Russell J.C, Kilian B.C, Muehlbauer G.J.C, Waugh R.C, Krause J.PI, Weiss E.PI, Stein N.PI 2016. “Genomic analysis of 6,000-year-old cultivated grain illuminates the domestication history of barley.” Nature Genetics 48: 1089-1093. DOI: 10.1038/ng.3611

Davidovich U.PI, Porat N.PI, Gadot Y.PI, Avni Y.C, Lipschits O.PI 2012. “Archaeological investigations and OSL dating of terraces at Ramat Rahel, Israel.” Journal of Field Archaeology 37: 192-208.

Selected Awards

Rothschild Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Rotenstreich Fellowship for Outstanding Doctoral Students in the Humanities, National Council for Higher Education

Scholion Interdisciplinary Research Center in the Humanities and Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University

President Fellowship, HU Honors Program for excelled PhD Students in the Humanities, The Hebrew University

The Bernard M. Bloomfield Prize for excelled PhD Dissertation, The Hebrew University

Teaching

Bachelor's degree courses

GIS applications in Archaeology

Introduction to Spatial Archaeology

Caves and complex societies

Unsuccessful revolution: The Chalcolithic period

The Negev, Arabah and Edom in the Iron Age

Regional Campus: Judean Desert

Advanced survey and Regional Analysis

Bronze Age Landscapes

In the footsteps of kings and rebels: Judean Desert during the Roman and Byzantine periods

Topics in Biblical Archaeology: Violence and its archaeological expressions (B.A Seminar)

Regional Campus: Golan Heights

The Early Bronze Age I in the Southern Levant

Regional Archaeology: From Theory to Practice (in collaboration with G. Shelach-Lavi)

The Ghassulian Culture: Society, Economy and Cult

Early Pottery (in collaboration with N. Panitz-Cohen)

Introduction to the Archaeology of Israel and the Levant: 8th-4th Millenia B.C.

Master's degree courses

Topics in Biblical Archaeology - Transitions (M.A Seminar, in collaboration with N. Yahalom-Mack)

Topics in Biblical Archaeology - Borders and Boundaries (M.A Seminar, in collaboration with N. Yahalom-Mack)

The Desert and the Sown in the Levant (M.A Seminar, in collaboration with I. Sharon)

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Prof. Uri Gabbay

Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near East

Archaeology Institute

0733882414

gabbay.uri@mail.huji.ac.il

Institute of Archeology Room 505a

Personal Website

Research Fields

Cuneiform
Sumerian, akkadian, mesopotamian religion
Mesopotamian scholasticism
Sumerian lamentations
Akkadian commentaries

About

Prof. Uri Gabbay's research focuses on cuneiform tablets written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages.

Selected Publications

U. Gabbay, Pacifying the Hearts of the Gods: Emesal Prayers of the First Millennium BC, Wiesbaden 2014

U. Gabbay, The Eršema Prayers of the First Millennium BCE, Wiesbaden 2015

U. Gabbay, The Exegetical Terminology of Akkadian Commentaries, Boston/Leiden 2016

Selected Awards

Teaching

Bachelor's degree courses
- Beginner's Sumerian
- Beginner's Akkadian
- Sumerian and Akkadian textual courses
- The Gods of Ancient Mesopotamia
Master's degree courses

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Prof. Yosef Garfinkel

Department of Biblical Archaeology

Archaeology Institute

02-5882412

garfinkel@mail.huji.ac.il

Institute of Archaeology Room 508

Research Fields

Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods
History of Dance
Kingdom of Judah

About

Prof. Yosef Garfinkel was born in Israel. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Archaeology and Geography, his Master of Arts degree in Prehistory and Biblical Archaeology and completed his PhD on the Pottery Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic periods. Since 1993, Garfinkel has been teaching archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Periods at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology. Garfinkel has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Yale University, Oxford University, Cambridge University and Kings College in London. Over the years, he has conducted excavations at various Proto-historic sites in Israel, including Yiftahel, Gesher, Tel Ali, Sha'ar Hagolan, Neolithic Ashkelon and Tel Tsaf.

In 2007 Garfinkel began the excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, where, for the first time in the archaeology of Israel, a fortified city from the time of King David had been uncovered. Between 2013 and 2017 Garfinkel excavaed at the biblical city of Lachish, the second most important city in Judah (second only to Jerusalem). Since 2015 he has been excavating at Khirbet al-Ra'i, another site in Judah from the time of King David.

Selected Publications

Y. Garfinkel, 2003. Dance at the Dawn of Agriculture. Austin: Texas University Press.

Y. Garfinkel and M. Mumcuoglu, 2016. Solomon’s Temple and Palace: New Archaeological Discoveries. Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem & Biblical Archaeology Society.

Y. Garfinkel, I. Kreimerman and P. Zilberg, 2016. Debating Khirbet Qeiyafa: A Fortified City in Judah from the Time of King David. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

Y. Garfinkel, S. Ganor and M. Hasel, 2018. Khirbet Qeiyafa Vol. 4. Excavation Report 2009–2013: Art, Cult and Epigraphy. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

Y. Garfinkel, S. Ganor and M. Hasel, 2018. Footsteps of King David in the Valley of Elah. London: Thames & Hudson.

Selected Awards

Recipient of the Polonsky Book Prize 2006 for creativity and originality in the Humanities for the

book Dance at the Dawn of Agriculture

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Prof. Leore Grosman

Archeology

972-2-5882118

leore.grosman@mail.huji.ac.il

Institute of Archeology

Personal Website

Research Fields

Prehistory of the Southern Levant
Origin of Agriculture
Prehistoric ritual
Computational Archaeology
Burial practices
Epipaleolithic
Natufian
Neolithic
Lithic technologies, 3-D scanning, 3-D analysis
Neolithic Quarries

About

Leore Grosman is Professor for Prehistoric Archaeology and the head of the Computational Archaeology Laboratory that apply tools from mathematics and computer sciences to modern archaeological research. As a prehistoric archaeologist she is engaged in research exploring the transformation from the hunting and gathering subsistence mode to that of farming, a transition that irrevocably changed the human world. The focus of her research is the Levantine Corridor, and she is the director of the Terminal Palaeolithic excavations projects at Hilazon Tachtit Cave, Nahal Ein-Gev II in Northern Israel.

Selected Publications

Grosman, L. 2016. Reaching the Point of No Return: The Computational Revolution in Archaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology 45 (1):129-145.

Grosman, L., A. Muller, I. Dag, H. Goldgeier, O. Harush, G. Herzlinger, K. Nebenhaus, F. Valetta, T. Yashuv, and N. Dick. In Press. Artifact3-D: New software for accurate, objective and efficient 3D analysis and documentation of archaeological artifacts. PLoS ONE.

Grosman, L., and N. D. Munro. 2016. A Natufian Ritual Event. Current Anthropology 57 (3):311-331.

Grosman, L., N. D. Munro, I. Abadi, E. Boaretto, D. Shaham, A. Belfer-Cohen, and O. Bar-Yosef. 2016. Nahal Ein Gev II, a Late Natufian Community at the Sea of Galilee. PLoS ONE 11 (1):e0146647.

Grosman, L., N. D. Munro, and A. Belfer-Cohen. 2008. A 12,000-year-old Shaman burial from the southern Levant (Israel). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (46):17665-17669.

Teaching

Bachelor's degree courses

Computational Archaeology

The Origins of Agriculture: Levant, America and China

Transitional periods in Prehistory

Human Prehistory

Levantine Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic Entities

Scientific Topics in Archaeology

Research of Human Prehistory in the 21st Century

Modern Human expansion to Europe

Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology

Topics in Levantine prehistory (seminar)

Master's degree courses

Field Archaeology

Developments of prehistoric closed spaces – to the Neolithic house

Computation Archaeology in 3-D

Topics in Prehistoric Archaeology (seminar)

Geo-Archaeology (seminar)

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Prof. Erella Hovers

Archaeology Institute

Department of Prehistoric Archaeology

+97225882426

Hovers@mail.huji.ac.il

Archaeology Building (old wing), room no. 305

Personal Website

Research Fields

Early and middle Pleistocene archaeology,
Levantine prehistory, eastern African prehistory,
dispersals,
the biocultural interface in human prehistory,
evolution of social cognition,
cultural transmission.

About

Erella Hovers is a professor of prehistoric archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a trained lithic analyst and works on the earlier periods of human prehistory in eastern Africa and the Levant. Along with Dr.Tegenu Gossa, Prof. Hovers is currently co-directinga project at Melka Wakena (dated 1.6- 0.8 million years) on the Ethiopian highlands and at Hayonim Cave (western Galilee, Israel) focusing on the time period 350-200 thousand years ago. On-going off site activities include publications stemming from previous projects in collaboration with specialists and doctoral and post-doctoral students.

Selected Publications

Hovers, E., Ilani, S., Bar-Yosef, O., Vandermeersch, B., 2003. “An early case of color symbolism: Ochre use by early modern humans in Qafzeh Cave.” Current Anthropology 44, 491-522.

Hovers, E., Belfer-Cohen, A., 2006. "Now you see it, now you don’t" – modern human behavior in the Middle Paleolithic, in: Hovers, E., Kuhn, S.L. (Eds.), Transitions Before The Transition: Evolution and Stability in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age. Springer New York, pp. 295-304.

Hovers, E., 2009. The Lithic Assemblages of Qafzeh Cave. Oxford University Press, New York.

Hovers, E., 2012. “Invention, re-invention, innovations: makings of the Oldowan” in: Elias, S. (Ed.), Origins of Human Creativity and Innovation. Elsevier, pp. 51-68.

Belfer-Cohen, A., Hovers, E., 2020. “Prehistoric perspectives on ‘Others’ and ‘Strangers.’ Frontiers in Psychology 10, 3063.

Hovers, E., Gossa, T., Asrat, A., et al., 2021. “The expansion of the Acheulian to the Southeastern Ethiopian Highlands: Insights from the new early Pleistocene site-complex of Melka Wakena.” Quaternary Science Reviews 253, 106763.

Selected Awards

Research grants from the Israel Science Foundation, Thyssen foundation, National Geographic Society, Leakey Foundation, internal grants.

Teaching

Introduction to prehistoric archaeology;

The Lower and Middle Paleolithic in the Levant;

On chimpanzees and humans;

The human settlement of Australia;

Processes of inventions and innovations in the prehistoric record;

Prehistoric perspectives on hunter-gatherers;

The emergence of modern humans; scientific writing

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Prof. Uzi Leibner

025881386/ 025880061

uzi.leibner@mail.huji.ac.il

Institute of Archaelogy, room 516

Personal Website

Research Fields

Classical Archaeology
Landscape Archaeology
Archaeological Surveys
Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Galilee
Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Pottery
Ancient Jewish Art
Ancient Synagogues - Architecture, Art and Institutional Aspectes
Talmudic Realia

About

Uzi Leibner is an associate professor in Classical Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology in at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He specializes in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine archaeology of the Land of Israel and its surroundings. His interests lie in various aspects of landscape archaeology; rural settlements; ancient synagogues; ancient Jewish Art; and the integration of archaeological material and historical sources.

Selected Publications

Khirbet Wadi Ḥamam: A Roman-period Village and Synagogue in the Lower Galilee, Jerusalem: Qedem ‎Reports 13, the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2018.

Settlement and History in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Galilee: An Archaeological Survey of the Eastern ‎Galilee, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2009. ‎

(with B. Arubas) "The Invisible Synagogues of the Second Temple Period," Cathedra (forthcoming) ‎‎(Hebrew).

(with D. Adan-Bayewitz, F. Asaro and M. D. Glascock, "A Pottery Production-Site for late Second Temple-period ‎Jerusalem," Eretz Israel 34, forthcoming (Hebrew).

(with Ch. Ben David, "Imported Fine Ware in Palaestina Secunda: Geographic, Economic, and Ethnic Aspects," BASOR 371 (2014), pp. 185-201. ‎

Selected Awards

Eliezer Shimshon Rosenthal Prize in Talmudic Research (2017).

Polonsky Prize for Creativity and Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines (2014).‎

Teaching

Introduction to the Archaeology of the Land of Israel in the Hellenistic, Roman ‎and Byzantine Periods

‎Introduction to Byzantine Archaeology

‎Jewish Art and Architecture in the Second Temple Period and in the Days of the ‎Mishnah and Talmud

Rural Settlements in the Land of Israel in the Roman and Byzantine Periods ‎

Hellenistic and early Roman Pottery Roman and Byzantine Pottery

Water Installations in israel and in the Classical World (B.A Seminar)

Galilee and its inhabitants during the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods (M.A Seminar)

The Ancient Synagogue - History and Archaeology (MA, with N. Hacham)

Talmudic Archaeology (MA, with D. Rosenthal)

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Prof. Tallay Ornan

Archaeology Institute

972(0)546261009, 972(0)2-6722758

Tallay.ornan@mail.huji.ac.il

Institute of Archaeology, room no. 211

Research Fields

Divine representations of the ancient Near East
royal representations of the ancient Near East
Yahwistic iconography

About

Tallay Ornan is an expert in ancient Near Eastern art of the 2nd & 1st millennia,focusing on the southern Levant, Mesopotamia & Syria

Selected Publications

T. Ornan 2005. The Triumph of the Symbol, Pictorial Representation of Deities in Mesopotamia and the Biblical

T. Ornan, 2010. “Humbaba, the Bull of Heaven & the Contribution of Images to the Reconstruction of the Gilgameš Epic.” In H.-U. Steymans ed., Gilgamesch – Bilder eines Helden: Ikonographie und Überlieferung von Motiven im Gilgameš-Epos.OBO 245. Fribourg & Göttingen: 229-260

T. Ornan. 2011.“ ‘Let Ba’al be Enthroned’: The Date, Identification and Function of a Bronze Statue from Hazor.” JNES 70.2:. 253-280

T. Ornan. 2012, “The Long Life of a Dead King: A Bronze Statue from Hazor in its Ancient Near Eastern Context.” BASOR 366: 1-23

T. Ornan. 2019. “Unfinished Business: The Relief on the Hammurabi Louvre Stele Revisited.” JCS 71: 85-109

Teaching

MA:

On Visual Narratives: Pictures and Stories in the Ancient Near East [].

Fighting Gods and Nude Goddesses in the Second Millennium Canaanite Art.

Pictures in Context: Assyrian Wall Reliefs circa 900-600 BCE.

Processes of Symbolization in Ancient Near Eastern Art

Pictorial Representations of Soveriegns in the Ancient Near East

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Dr. Orit Peleg-Barkat

Archaeology Institute

025880330

orit.peleg@mail.huji.ac.il

Room no. 505

Personal Website

Research Fields

Roman art and architecture
Hellenistic art and architecture
Funerary architecture
Second Temple period
Ancient Jerusalem
Flavius Josephus
Herod the Great
The Hasmonean Dynasty
Jewish Art

About

Dr. Orit Peleg-Barkat is a Classical archaeologist specializing in Hellenistic and Roman art and architecture of the southern Levant, and especially in Hasmonean and Herodian architectural decoration. She has published extensively on the architectural decoration of the Hasmonean and Herodian palaces at Jericho, the mausoleum at Herodium, and the Herodian Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

She has also studied trends and changes in the funerary architecture of Judea in the Hellenistic and Roman eras. In recent years, Dr. Orit Peleg-Barkat has run three archaeological excavations – one at the Byzantine-period village of En Gedi, the other at Horvat Midras in the Judean Foothills, where remains of a Roman temple and a Jewish pyramidal funerary monument were uncovered, and the third in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Selected Publications

Peleg-Barkat O., 2012. “The Relative Chronology of Tomb Façades in Early Roman Jerusalem and Power Displays by the Élite,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 25/1, pp. 403−418

Peleg-Barkat O., 2014. "Fit for a King: Architectural Décor in Judaea and Herod as Trendsetter," Bulletin of the American

School of Oriental Research 371, pp. 141−161

Peleg-Barkat O. (PI.), Geva, H. (C.), and Reich R. (C.), 2017. "A Monumental Herodian Ionic Capital from the Upper City of Jerusalem," Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology 8: 74–95

Peleg-Barkat O., 2017. The Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem, 1968−1978 Directed by Benjamin Mazar, Final Reports, vol. V: Herodian Architectural Decoration and King Herod’s Royal Portico [Qedem series 57], Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Peleg-Barkat, O., 2019, Herod’s Western Palace in Jerusalem: Some New Insights, Electrum 26: 53-72.

Selected Awards

2015−2019: Individual Research Grant from the Israel Science Foundation, "Continuity and Change in Rural Roman Judaea: Horvat Midras as a Case Study," NIS 860,000. #48, #50, #63, #64

2015: Ruth Amiran Fund for Archaeological Research in Eretz-Israel, “Editing a Festschrift in honour of Prof. Joseph Patrich on the Occasion of his Retirement,” US$ 4,000. #14

2018: Ruth Amiran Fund for Archaeological Research in Eretz-Israel, “Student Academic Tour to Georgia,” US$ 10,000.

2019: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung, "Conference - The Basilica in Roman Palestine, Its Architectural Layout, Role and Function in the Ancient City, University of Tübingen," EU€ 11,000.

2019: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant (together with Prof. Gregg Gardner from University of British Columbia, Vancouver), "The Horvat Midras Excavation Project: Cultural Interaction in Rural Roman Judea," CAD$ 69,023.

2020: The Roger and Susan Hertog Center for the Archaeological Study of Jerusalem and Judah Grant, “The Gan HaMisgav Excavations in the Jewish Quarter,” US$ 30,000.

2021: The Roger and Susan Hertog Center for the Archaeological Study of Jerusalem and Judah Grant, “The Gan HaTkumah Excavations in the Jewish Quarter,” US$ 20,000.

Teaching

Fashion Victims of the Ancient World

Alexander the Great and his Heritage

Jerusalem through the Ages – The Tangible Past

Rome and Jerusalem between Augustus and Titus

Introduction to Greek Archaeology

Introduction to Roman Archaeology

Topics in Classical – Byzantine Archaeology: Herodian Art and Architecture

Topics in Classical – Byzantine Archaeology: The Archaeology of Hellenistic Palestine

Josephus' Writings and the Archaeological Finds

The Classical Architectural Decoration

King Herod and other Client Kings

Egyptomania: Egypt in Rome, Rome in Egypt

The Hasmoneans from an Archaeological Perspective - Rebels, Priests and Kings

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Prof. Nathan Wasserman

Archaeology Institute

025883912

nathan.wasserman@mail.huji.ac.il

Institute of Archaeology, room no.512

Personal Website

Research Fields

Akkadian literature
Mesopotamian magic
Mesopotamian epistolary texts
Mesopotamian history

About

Born in Jerusalem (1962)

BA and MA (1983-87), PhD (1993, Assyriology): The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Professor of Assyriology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

2011-2014 Vice-dean for research, Faculty of Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

2010–2011 Mercator Guest Professor (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) at the Altorientalisches Institut, University of Leipzig

2008–2014 Associate professor in Assyriology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (27.4.2008 –18.11.2014)

2002–2008 Senior lecturer in Assyriology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (13.5.2002 – 26.4.2008)

1995–2002 Lecturer in Assyriology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1.4.1995 – 12.5.2002)

1993–1994 Post-doc, UPR 193, CNRS, Paris (équipe de Mari)

Selected Publications

“Style and Form in Old-Babylonian Literary Texts,” Cuneiform Monographs 27, Leiden/Boston: Brill/Styx, 2003.

“Akkadian Love Literature of the 3rd and 2nd Millennium BCE,” Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 4, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2016.

Labor Pains, Difficult Birth, Sick Child: Three Old Babylonian Incantations from a Private Collection, Bibliotheca Orientalis 75 (2018), 14–25.

“The Susa Funerary Texts: A New Edition and Re-Evaluation and the Question of Psychostasia in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 139 (2019), 859–891.

The Flood: The Akkadian Sources. A New Edition, Commentary, and a Literary Discussion (Orbis

Biblicus et Orientalis, 290), Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2020.

Teaching

Jerusalem: 2017/18

Akkadian for Beginners; BA (Mon. and Wed. 10:30-12:00) ► course

Death in the Literature of Mesopotamia; BA (Winter semester, Mon. 16:30-18:00) ► course

You Cross Regularly Through the Heavens: The Great Shamash Hymn; BA (Summer semester, Wed. 14:30-16:00) ► course

Akkadian incantations against demons, sickness, and various animals; MA (Mon. 12:30-14:00) ► course

Leipzig: December 2017

Reading Tablets from Photos (4–7 December: "Blockseminar". With Prof. M. P. Streck)

Jerusalem: 2018/19

Kings & Cities: Introduction to the History of Ancient Mesopotamia; BA (Summer semester, Mon. 16:30-18:00) ► course

Wisdom Literature: Advanced Akkadian; BA (Summer semester, Mon. 12:30-14:00) ► course

The Assyrian Dialect: Letters; BA (Summer semester, Wed. 10:30-12:00) ► course

Jerusalem: 2019/20

Introduction to Akkadian; BA (Winter semester, Mon. and Wed. 10:30-12:00) ► course

Akkadian Texts for Beginners ; BA (Summer semester, Mon. and Wed. 10:30-12:00) ► course

Jerusalem: 2020/21

Reading in the Laws of Hammurapi; BA (Winter semester, Mon. 10:30–12:00) ► course

Selected Old Babylonian Letters: BA (Winter semester, Mon. 13:00–14:30) ► course

Kings & Cities: Introduction to the History of Ancient Mesopotamia; BA (Summer semester, Mon. 17:00-18:30) ► course

The Flood in Akkadian Literature (Summer semester, Mon. 10:30-12:00) ► course

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Prof. Zeev Weiss

Archaeology Institute

025882422

Institute of Archaeology, room 517

Personal Website

Research Fields

Town planning
Architectural design
Mosaic art
Synagogues
Jewish art
Public spectacles
Evaluation of archaeological finds in light of the socio-cultural behavior of Jewish society and its dialogue with Graeco-Roman and Christian cultures

About

Zeev Weiss is the Eleazar L. Sukenik Professor of Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology. Trained in Classical Archaeology, he specializes in Roman and Late Antique art and architecture in the provinces of Syria-Palestine. Weiss’s ongoing excavations at Sepphoris since 1990 have uncovered the remains of the ancient city that flourished from the Roman period and throughout late antiquity. The wealth of evidence emerging from Sepphoris, one of the major Galilean settlements, illustrates the glorious past of this large and prosperous city that housed a mosaic of cultures.

Selected Publications

Z. Weiss, Public Spectacles in Roman and Late Antique Palestine (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2014)

Z. Weiss, Sepphoris: A Mosaic of Cultures (Jerusalem, Yad Izhak ben-Zvi, 2021) (Hebrew)

M. Sherman, Z. Weiss, T. Zilberman, and G. Yasur, “Chalkstone Vessels from Sepphoris: Galilean Production in Roman Times,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 383 (2020), 79–95

Z. Weiss, “Urban and Rural Synagogues in Late Antique Palestine: Is there That Much of a Difference between Them?” in Early Christian Encounters with Town and Countryside Essays on the Urban and Rural Worlds of Early Christianity, ed. M. Tiwald and J. K. Zangenberg, Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus / Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments 126 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021), 377-396

Z. Weiss, The “Magdala Stone Table”: Its Function and Role in Determining the Liturgical Furniture in the Ancient Synagogue,” Journal of Roman Archaeology (in press)

Selected Awards

Irene Levi-Sala Book Prize in the Archaeology of Israel (for: The Sepphoris Synagogue: Deciphering an Ancient Message through Its Archaeological and Socio-Historical Contexts [Jerusalem, 2005])

Teaching

Undergraduate Courses

Introduction to Roman Archaeology (43156)

Introduction to Byzantine Archaeology (43107)

Introduction to Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Archaeology of the Land of Israel (43511)

Classical Art and Architecture: The Roman Period (43427)

Topics of Classical Byzantine Archaeology: Urbanization in Roman Palestine (43526)

Topics of Classical Byzantine Archaeology: Cult Buildings in Ancient Palestine (43526)

The Roman House and Its Decorations (43409)

Graduate Courses

Jews and Christians in Ancient Palestine: The Archaeological Evidence (43956)

In the Path of the Galilee: Architecture, Art, and Society (43776)

The Ancient Synagogue: New Finds, New Paradigms (43760)

Mosaic Art in Ancient Palestine (43814)

Jews and Christians in Byzantine Palestine: A Literary and Archaeological Approach (with Prof. David Satran) (8801)

Between Text and Artifact: Everyday Life in Late Antique Palestine (with Prof. Joshua Levinson) (8804)

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