International MA Archaeology & Ancient Israel Studies - Tel Aviv University

The archaeology community at Tel Aviv University congratulates Dr. Reli Avisar on receiving her doctoral degree!

Her dissertation, entitled “Elites and Prestige Objects in Judah during the Late Iron Age: A Social, Economic, and Cultural Analysis,” was written under the supervision of Prof. Yuval Gadot and Prof. Ido Koch, with the guidance and support of Prof. Israel Finkelstein. The dissertation includes five articles published in leading journals in the field.

Dr. Avisar on her research:
The dissertation examines how the elites of the Kingdom of Judah expressed wealth, status, and social identity during the Iron Age II (ca. 850–586 BCE), and how these strategies evolved with the involvement of external powers in the region.
Through the study of luxury and prestige objects, iconography, and consumption, it explores how material culture functioned not only as a marker of wealth, but also as a means of negotiating status, political authority, and cultural identity.
The dissertation brings together five studies on elite consumption and material culture in Judah, focusing mainly on Jerusalem and Lachish. Examining both material and symbolic aspects of elite culture, it explores how Judahite society—and particularly its local elite—responded to the growing influence of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, adapting to new political circumstances and gaining access to wider imperial networks.
More broadly, the research situates Judah within the ancient Near East and examines how local elites negotiated identity and authority in a shifting political landscape.

On Wednesday, July 8, the faculty of the Department and the Institute gathered at the EretzIsrael Museum (MUZA) for a celebratory toast marking the end of the academic year and thebeginning of another summer of excavations, research, and scholarly activity.
Following the toast, we were joined by Yelena Elgart-Sharon, Curator of Archaeology at MUZA,for a guided tour of the museum's orchard and Tel Qasile. During the tour, we learned how thearchaeological mound is being integrated into the museum's development plans and what thefuture holds for the site.

We also took the opportunity to visit the two marble statues recently discovered in the IsraelAntiquities Authority excavations near Binyamina. One of the statues bears the Greek inscription "Lycurgus." The statues are currently on display at MUZA for a limited three-month exhibition.

Our sincere thanks to MUZA for its warm hospitality, to Yelena for the fascinating tour, and to everyone who joined us.

Save the Date!

Join us at Magdala for the “Magdala Conference 2026”, a two-day conference dedicated to the
archaeology, history, preservation, and future of Magdala.

October 8–9, 2026
Magdala, Migdal, Israel
More details coming soon.

On Wednesday, June 24, four Kessler Family Scholarships were awarded to outstanding
students in Ancient Near Eastern Studies.
The Kessler family has supported the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern
Cultures since 2012. James Kessler, a London-based property lawyer and an alumnus of the
University of Oxford, studied Akkadian and Biblical Hebrew during his university years and has
maintained a longstanding interest in the ancient languages and cultures of the Ancient Near
East. Through their continued generosity, the Kessler family helps support academic excellence
among students in the field.
Congratulations to this year’s scholarship recipients:
Noam Lea Adany Hacohen
Ithamar Belfar
Yuval Cagan
Nour khalilieh

The Tel Aviv University Archaeology Community is pleased to announce that the monograph:

Khirbet el-ʿAqd, A Hellenistic-Roman Stronghold in Western Judea by Moshe Fischer and Oren Tal

Is now available in open access through the Institute of Archaeology website.

This volume publishes the results of the excavation of Khirbet el-ʿAqd in Canada Park. The excavation was conducted some forty years ago under the direction of the late Prof. Mordechai Gichon and the late Prof. Moshe Fischer on behalf of Tel Aviv University.
As a reminder, nearly all monographs published by the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology are freely available through the Institute's website.

Start reading today:
https://en-humanities.tau.ac.il/archaeology/publications/Horizons

The Tel Aviv University archaeology community wishes the Azekah Expedition a successful, enriching, and enjoyable excavation season!
The Azekah Expedition will begin its 14th season on Sunday, July 19. Instead of a large-scale excavation involving dozens of participants, only 10–15 team members will be working at the site this year, together with a small group of volunteers, creating a unique opportunity to focus on several specific research questions.
One of the expedition’s main goals this season is to continue investigating the impressive Middle Bronze Age fortifications of Tel Azekah—a defensive system nearly 3,700 years old. The team hopes to gain a better understanding of how these remarkable fortifications were constructed, how they developed over time, and how they shaped the city that stood behind them. One of the expedition's key research questions is whether these fortifications incorporated earlier walls belonging to the Early Bronze Age settlement. At the same time, the expedition plans to continue uncovering the impressive acropolis citadel as part of ongoing efforts to preserve the structure and make it accessible to the public.
Want to learn more?

The Tel Aviv University archaeology community is pleased to announce that the monograph:

Salvage Excavation Reports: The Tel Aviv University Excavations in Ancient Jaffa, Vol. 1 by Meir Edrey, Boaz Gross, and Zeʾev Herzog
Is now available in open access through the Institute of Archaeology website.

This volume presents the final publication of several excavations conducted in Jaffa. The first part presents the results of excavations conducted at Tel Jaffa in 1997 and 1999. The second and third parts present the results of two salvage excavations directed by Meir Edrey and Boaz Gross on behalf of the Israel Institute of Archaeology and under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University: one at the French Hospital (2010) and the other at the Qishle Compound (2011).

As a reminder, nearly all publications of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology are available for free through the Institute's website.
Start reading for free today:
https://en-humanities.tau.ac.il/archaeology/publications/salvage

The Tel Aviv University archaeology community wishes the Tel Shaddud Expedition a successful, rewarding, and enjoyable excavation season!
The Tel Shaddud Archaeological Project in the Jezreel Valley will begin its fourth excavation season on 12 July, continuing through 7 August 2026. The project is a collaboration between the Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority, in partnership with the Universities of Jena and Bochum (Germany) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, USA).

This fourth excavation season will focus on a destruction layer dating to the second half of the ninth century BCE, uncovered in several areas of the site, which is shedding new light on the formative years of the Kingdom of Israel. Excavations will also continue to expose remains from the Assyrian imperial period (Late Iron Age) and the Roman period (first and second centuries CE). In addition, we hope to begin uncovering settlement layers dating to the period of Egyptian imperial rule during the Late Bronze Age.
We are also delighted to announce that the Tel Shaddud Archaeological Project has been selected as the official training excavation of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. During its fourth season, the project will host undergraduate and graduate students from both the department and the International Program, providing them with theoretical and practical training in the fundamentals of field archaeology. We are proud of the opportunity to help train the next generation of Israeli archaeologists.
Want to learn more? https://telshaddud.com/

We are pleased to announce a new podcast by the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University, Prof. Oded Lipschits, exploring the history and archaeology of Tel Azekah. In this episode, Prof. Lipschits is joined by students whose research has focused on the site, including Danny Nam, Noga Rapaport, Avinoam Lehavi, Efrat Shefi, Noa Shatil and others.

Prof. Lipschits on the site:
"Tel Azekah is a unique focal point where landscape, history, and human identity have intersected for thousands of years. Its location overlooking the Elah Valley creates a complementary relationship between a fertile and sustaining environment and an elevated, fortified point of control, reflecting the interplay of agriculture, power, and defense. Throughout the centuries, the site served as a borderland and a crossroads between different cultures—linking the highlands, the Shephelah, and the coastal plain—and therefore held enduring strategic, economic, and symbolic significance."
Tune in to explore the story of Tel Azekah through the perspectives of archaeologists, historians, and students working on the site.
Listen here:

ארכאולוגיה וארץ ישראל | תל אביב 360

The Tel Aviv University archaeology community wishes the Qesem Cave Expedition a successful, enriching, and enjoyable excavation season!
The Qesem Cave Expedition will begin its 19th excavation season on Sunday, July 5. This year, the expedition team will focus on the southwestern area of the site, investigating the intriguing association between dozens of horse teeth and carefully shaped limestone spheres that were uncovered there during previous excavation seasons. Why were horse jaws brought into the cave? How were the stone spheres crafted? And why do the teeth and spheres appear together in the same area? This season, the team will also excavate beneath a rock shelf where hundreds of flint blades and animal bones have been found, with the aim of exploring the relationship between the southwestern area and this part of the cave.
The members of the Qesem Cave Expedition hope to uncover new insights and reveal additional aspects of the lives of the people who lived not far from here some 300,000 years ago: the stone tools they produced, the animals they hunted, their relationships with one another and with the natural world around them, and and how their ways of understanding the world may have been both similar to and different from our own.

When? July 5–July 16
Where? Qesem Cave
Interested in learning more? Thinking about joining the Qesem Cave Expedition?

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