Nahman Avigad

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Dr. Nahman Avigad (1905-1992), born in Zawalow, Galicia (then Austria, now in the western region of Ukraine), was an Israeli archaeologist.

He studied architecture in what is now the town of Brno, Czech Republic. Avigad emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1926. He married Shulamit (nee Levin) Avigad in 1928. He worked in the excavations of the Beth Alpha synagogue and the Hammat-Gader synagogue.

Avigad earned his PhD in 1952, with a dissertation was on the tombs of the Kidron Valley, Jerusalem. He taught at Hebrew University from 1949 and until his retirement in 1974.

He directed the dig at Beit She'arim beginning in 1953. Avigad also worked on the excavation of the Masada mountaintop complex built by Herod the Great. He was involved in the exploration of caves in the Judean desert, and published one of the Dead Sea scrolls[1].

According to Bible Scholar Frank Moore Cross, Avigad “was Israel’s most distinguished epigraphist in his generation, and one of the great figures in the history of Hebrew and Jewish epigraphy.”[2]

In 1969 Avigad was invited to undertake the excavation of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, devastated by the 1948 war and its aftermath. Among the finds were what was believed to be the earliest depiction of the menorah that once burned in the Second Temple, cut into a wall plastered 2,200 years ago, and the remnants of a building destroyed when Titus, the future Roman Emperor, repressed a series of Jewish revolts against Roman rule. This was the first physical or archaeological evidence for the destruction described in the work of Flavius Josephus. The dig also unearthed lavish villas belonging to the Herodian upper classes, remains of the Byzantine Nea (new) Church and a 70-foot-wide road, fifth century road connecting the Holy Sepulcher Church and Nea Churches.

Among the most exciting finds was the remnants of the "broad wall," twice mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah. Built to restore Jerusalem's fortifications after the Jews returned from Babylonian exile, it remains an 80-foot stretch of wall 23 feet thick, rising from bedrock west of the Temple Mount.

Avigad published on many topics, notably on Hebrew seals. One of the seals found by him in 1964 has been tentatively identified as belonging to Queen Jezebel, mentioned in the Bible: [3] however, this identification is contested by others. [4]

[edit] Popular books

  • "Discovering Jerusalem" (1983) Nelson,

[edit] References

A complete bibliography and a biography can be found in the festschrift published in Avigad’s honor: Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies. Vol. 18, Nahman Avigad. Eds. B. Mazar and Y. Yadin. Jerusalem, The Israel Exploration Society and the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University 1985.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Nahman Avigad and Yigael Yadin. A Genesis Apocryphon: A Scroll from the Wilderness of Judaea. Jerusalem: Magnes Press and Heikhal ha-Sefer, 1956.
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Science Daily website. "Ancient Seal Belonged To Queen Jezebel", Science Daily, October 29, 2007. Accessed November 1, 2007.
  4. ^ Christopher A. Rollston . "Precarious Scholarship: Problems with Proposing that the Seal of Yzbl was Queen Jezebel's", American Schools of Oriental Research website, October 12, 2007. Accessed November 1, 2007.