Aren Maeir
Encyclopedia
Aren Maeir is a professor at Bar Ilan University and director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project (http://www.dig-gath.org). Born in 1958 in Rochester, New York
, USA, he moved to Israel
in 1969 and has lived there since. Following his service in the Israel Defence Forces (where he reached the rank of captain), he did his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (PhD 1997 summa cum laude), and did a post-doctorate (2002-2003) at the (now defunct) Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology
at MIT. He has been teaching at Bar-Ilan University
since 1993.
, Beth-Shean, and since 1996, at Tell es-Safi
/Gath. He is married to Adina (née Hartman), and they have three sons (and a female Labrador Retriever).
His expertise lies in the Bronze and Iron Age cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean, with special emphasis on those of the Ancient Levant. Among the topics that he has studied are: ancient trade; metallurgy; pottery production and provenience; scientific applications in archaeology; archaeological survey; the archaeology of Jerusalem; The Middle Bronze Age of the Levant; chronology of the 2nd Millennium BCE; the Sea Peoples
and the Philistines
; relations between Egypt and the Levant; ancient weapons and warfare; ancient cult and religion.
Between 2005 and 2007 he served as the Chairman of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology (http://www.biu.ac.il/JS/le/index.htm) at Bar-Ilan University
. Along with Prof. Steve Weiner of the Weizmann Institute of Science
in Rehovot
, he initiated and co-directed the now defunct joint Bar-Ilan University/Weizmann Institute of Science program in Archaeological Science.
Since 1996 he has directed the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, excavating the ancient site of Tell es-Safi
, which is identified as Canaan
ite and Philistine Gath (one of the five cities of the Philistines
mentioned in the Bible, the home of Goliath).
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1131367063187
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/13/AR2005111300315.html
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/900447.html
Weblog: Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project (http://gath.wordpress.com).
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, USA, he moved to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1969 and has lived there since. Following his service in the Israel Defence Forces (where he reached the rank of captain), he did his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (PhD 1997 summa cum laude), and did a post-doctorate (2002-2003) at the (now defunct) Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology
Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology
The Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology was a research institute established at MIT, and housed in a renovated building on campus at 38 Memorial Drive, overlooking the Charles River....
at MIT. He has been teaching at Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
since 1993.
Overview
He has participated in, and directed, numerous archaeological excavations in Israel, including at the following sites: Jerusalem, Hazor, Yoqneam, Tell QasileTell Qasile
Tell Qasile is an archaeological site in Tel Aviv, Israel. Over 3,000 years old, the site contains the remains of a port city founded by the Philistines in the 12th century BC...
, Beth-Shean, and since 1996, at Tell es-Safi
Tell es-Safi
Gath, Gat, or Geth , often referred to as Gath of the Philistines, was one of the five Philistine city-states, established in northwestern Philistia. According to the Bible, the king of the city was Achish, in the times of Saul, David, and Solomon. It is not certain whether this refers to two or...
/Gath. He is married to Adina (née Hartman), and they have three sons (and a female Labrador Retriever).
His expertise lies in the Bronze and Iron Age cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean, with special emphasis on those of the Ancient Levant. Among the topics that he has studied are: ancient trade; metallurgy; pottery production and provenience; scientific applications in archaeology; archaeological survey; the archaeology of Jerusalem; The Middle Bronze Age of the Levant; chronology of the 2nd Millennium BCE; the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
and the Philistines
Philistines
Philistines , Pleshet or Peleset, were a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age . According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from the Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with...
; relations between Egypt and the Levant; ancient weapons and warfare; ancient cult and religion.
Between 2005 and 2007 he served as the Chairman of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology (http://www.biu.ac.il/JS/le/index.htm) at Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
. Along with Prof. Steve Weiner of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science , known as Machon Weizmann, is a university and research institute in Rehovot, Israel. It differs from other Israeli universities in that it offers only graduate and post-graduate studies in the sciences....
in Rehovot
Rehovot
Rehovot is a city in the Center District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 112,700. Rehovot's official website estimates the population at 114,000.Rehovot was built on the site of Doron,...
, he initiated and co-directed the now defunct joint Bar-Ilan University/Weizmann Institute of Science program in Archaeological Science.
Since 1996 he has directed the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, excavating the ancient site of Tell es-Safi
Tell es-Safi
Gath, Gat, or Geth , often referred to as Gath of the Philistines, was one of the five Philistine city-states, established in northwestern Philistia. According to the Bible, the king of the city was Achish, in the times of Saul, David, and Solomon. It is not certain whether this refers to two or...
, which is identified as Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite and Philistine Gath (one of the five cities of the Philistines
Philistines
Philistines , Pleshet or Peleset, were a people who occupied the southern coast of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age . According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from the Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with...
mentioned in the Bible, the home of Goliath).
Publications
Professor Maeir currently has more than a hundred and twenty scholarly publications, including:- Ackermann, O., A. Faust, and A. Maeir, eds. 2005. Archaeology and Environment: Conference proceedings. In Hebrew. Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University.
- Ben-Shlomo, D., I. Shai, and A. Maeir. 2004. Late Philistine Decorated Ware (“Ashdod Ware”): Typology, Chronology and Production Centers. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 335 (August):1-35.
- Ben-Shlomo, D., I. Shai, A. Zukerman, and A. Maeir. 2008. Cooking Identities: Aegean-Style and Philistine Cooking Jugs and Cultural Interaction in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. American Journal of Archaeology 112(2), April:225-46.
- Maeir, A. 1997. The material culture of the Central and Northern Jordan valley in the Middle Bronze Age II: Pottery and settlement pattern. Ph.D. diss. Jerusalem: Hebrew University.
- ------. 1997. T.1181, area L, Hazor: A multiple interment burial cave of the MBIIA/B period. In Hazor V, ed. A. Ben-Tor, 295-340. Jerusalem.
- ------. 2004. Bronze and Iron Age Tombs at Tel Gezer, Israel: Finds from the Excavations by Raymond-Charles Weill in 1914 and 1921. N. Panitz-Cohen, et al. British Archaeological Reports International Series 1206. Oxford: Archaeopress.
- ------. 2004. The Historical Background and Dating of Amos VI 2: An Archaeological Perspective from Tell es-Safi/Gath. Vetus TestamentumVetus TestamentumVetus Testamentum is an academic journal covering various aspects of the Old Testament....
54(3):319-34. - ------. 2008. The Middle Bronze Age II Pottery. In Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean 1989-1996, Volume II: The Middle and Late Bronze Age Strata in Area R, ed. A. Mazar and R. Mullins, 242-389. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.
- ------. 2008. Zafit, Tel. In The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land 5: Supplementary volume, ed. E. Stern, 2079-81. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.
- ------. 2010 Stones, Bones, Texts and Relevance: Or How I Lost My Fear of Biblical Archaeology and Started Enjoying It. Pp. 295–303 in Historical Biblical Archaeology and the Future: The New Pragmatism, ed. T. Levy. London: Equinox.
- ------. 2010 “And Brought in the Offerings and the Tithes and the Dedicated Things Faithfully” (II Chron 31:12): On the Meaning and Function of the Late Iron Age Judahite “Incised Handle Cooking Pot.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 130(1):43–62.
- ------. 2008 Aegean Feasting and Other Indo-European Elements in the Philistine Household. Pp. 347–52 in DAIS - the Aegean Feast: Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Aegean Conference, Melbourne 25–29 March, 2008, eds. R. Laffineur and L. Hitchcock. Aegeaum 29. Liege: University of Liege.
- ------. 2010 “In the Midst of the Jordan”: The Jordan Valley During the Middle Bronze Age (Ca. 2000–1500 BCE) - Archaeological and Historical Correlates. Contributions to the Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean, Vol. 26. Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
- ------. 2011 (in press). The Archaeology of earliest Jerusalem: From the late Proto-Historic periods (ca. 5th Millennium BCE) to the end of the Bronze Age (ca. 1200 BCE). In Jerusalem in Perspective: 150 Years of Archaeological Research. Proceedings of the Conference held at Brown University November 12-14, 2006, ed. K. Galor and G. Avni. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
- Maeir, A., and P. de Miroschedji, eds. 2006. “I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times”: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
- Maeir, A., and J. Yellin. 2008. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis of selected pottery from Tel Beth Shean and the Central Jordan Valley. In Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean 1989-1996, Volume II: The Middle and Late Bronze Age Strata in Area R, ed. A. Mazar and R. Mullins, 554-71. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.
Selected News Articles
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695230112,00.htmlwww.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1131367063187
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/13/AR2005111300315.html
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/900447.html
External links
Website: Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project (http://www.dig-gath.org).Weblog: Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project (http://gath.wordpress.com).