Aren Maeir

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Aren Maeir is a professor at Bar Ilan University and director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project ([1]). 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 held a post-doctoral position (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.

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[edit] Overview

He has participated in, and directed, numerous archaeological excavations in Israel, including at the following sites: Jerusalem, Hazor, Yoqneam, Tell Qasile, Beth-Shean, and since 1996, at Tell es-Safi/Gath. He is married to Adina (neé 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 ([2]) at Bar-Ilan University. Along with Prof. Steve Weiner of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, he initiated and co-directs a joint Bar-Ilan University/Weizmann Insitute of Science program in Archaeological Science ([3])

Since 1996 he has directed the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, excavating the ancient site of Tell es-Safi, which is identified as Canaanite and Philistine Gath (one of the five cities of the Philistines mentioned in the Bible, the home of Goliath).

[edit] Publications

Professor Maeir currently has more than a hundred 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 Testamentum 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.
  • ------. 2008 (in press). Stones, bones, texts and relevance: Or how I lost my fear of biblical archaeology and started enjoying it. In The New Biblical Archaeology - From Text to Turf, T. Levy.
  • ------. 2008 (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.

[edit] Selected News Articles

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695230112,00.html

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

[edit] Links

Home Page: Aren Maeir ([4])

Website: Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project ([5]).

Weblog: Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project ([6]).

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