Archaeological Projects and Discussions with Aren Maeir (original) (raw)
Happy to announce a conference “Jerusalem through the Ages: New Perspectives“, which will be held at Schloss Beuggen, Rheinfelden, Germany, on April 27-29, 2025. At the conference, jointly organized by the Ingeborg Rennert Center of Jerusalem Studies, Bar-Ilan University and the Minerva Center for the Relations between Israel and Aram in Biblical Times, scholars from various fields of research (history, archaeology, philology, theology, etc.) will present a broad range of lectures covering aspects relating to Jerusalem, from the Bronze Age until the Crusader Period.
See below the detailed schedule.
Note: the lectures will also be broadcast on zoom.
Preparations for Passover (Pessach) traditionally include cleaning the spaces you use from all “chametz.”
In the Safi lab, instead of cleaning, they are “organizing” – and Leah our pottery restorer, with the help of Arenele, have restored a very nice jar from the the Iron IIA destruction level excavated in Area M in the lower city of Gath.
Check it out! (and thanks to Maria for the pictures)
The annual meeting of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology will be held on June 5, 2025. The topic of the meeting will be on the frontiers in the Land of Israel throughout the ages.
See the schedule (most of the lectures are in Hebrew) below.
Best wishes for a happy Passover and a happy Easter for those celebrating!
Let us all hope that these holidays will be a sign for better times, in the Middle East and indeed on the entire planet!
For those interested, here is link to an article of mine that deals with the history and memory reflected in the biblical Passover narrative:
Happy to announce the following workshop:
The Minerva Center for the Relations between Israel and Aram in Biblical Times (RIAB), BIU/Leipzig University
&
The School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, University of Haifa
Workshop on Prof. Eric Cline’s Books: 1177 BC and After 1177 BC
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Meeting Room of the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University Campus, Building No. 410, 3rd Floor
15:00 Gathering
15:30 Workshop opening remarks – Prof. Aren Maeir, co-director of RIAB Center
15:35 Presentation on the books – Prof. Eric Cline, George Washington University
16:20 Response – Prof. Assaf Yasur-Landau, Haifa University
16:35 Response – Prof. Oded Lipschits, Tel Aviv University
16:50 Response – Prof. Ann Killebrew, Pennsylvania State University
17:05 Coffee Break
17:25 Response – Prof. Naama Yahalom-Mack, Hebrew University
17:40 Response – Prof. Dafna Langgut, Tel Aviv University
17:55 Response – Prof. Gunnar Lehmann, Ben-Gurion University
18:10 Response – Dr. Sabine Kleiman, Tel Aviv University
18:25 Response – Prof. Aren Maeir, Bar-Ilan University
18:40 General Discussion
If you are interested in participating, please notify at arenmaeir@gmail.com
The workshop will also be broadcast on zoom at the following link:
https://biu-ac-il.zoom.us/j/3696964081?omn=82525449443
Congratulations to Noam Maeir, my son, for his just appeared article!
Maeir, N. (2025) Material philology and Syriac excerpting practices: A computational-quantitative study of the digitized catalog of the Syriac manuscripts in the British Library. PLoS ONE 20(3): e0320265. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0320265
Way to go! Kol hakavod! Super proud!
Now here is something very cool! Below is a map of the world, with all the countries in the entire world. Those that are marked in blue are those in which there are people who have visited this blog since it was started!
As you can notice, there are very few countries in the world that are not blue! Go blue!
Tomorrow, the 49th Annual Archaeological Congress in Israel was supposed to take place at the main IAA building in Jerusalem.
Quite shockingly, the Minister of Heritage, who oversees the IAA, attempted to prevent one of our colleagues from presenting his lecture tomorrow, due to political considerations.
In light of this, the various archaeological organizations involved in organizing the conference decided to postpone the Congress, and hold it in the future at another location (somewhere that the fascist Minister of Heritage won’t have a say).
No pasaran!
The Faculty of Jewish Studies at Bar-Ilan University has put out some great anime style pictures relating to the faculty, including several that are set in the lab of the Safi project, and other activities of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology.
Check it out!
Today, I had the pleasure to visit the new excavations at Tel Ashdod, directed by Prof. Itzik Shai of Ariel University. The current, short season focussed on the 6 chamber Iron Age gate, in preparation for restoration work of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Hopefully, this will develop into a full scale project at the site.
First of all, to my complete embarrassment, this was the first time I had visited the site of Tel Ashdod (despite being a leading Philistine…). The site is very impressive!
Second, the gate itself is super impressive and much larger than I imagined!
Hopefully, this will develop into a large project in the coming years, and a sister site of Gath will be excavated using modern techniques!
See some pictures from my visit below:
