Milestones
Father Michele Piccirillo, a Franciscan of the Custody of the Holy Land and expert in the archaeology of Jordan, especially mosaics, died on October 26, 2008, at age 63 after a brief battle with cancer.
Piccirillo taught at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (SBF) in Jerusalem and was director of the SBF museum and archaeological mission.
Piccirillo was ordained a priest in the Custody of the Holy Land in 1969 and earned degrees at the Athenaeum Antonianum and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He completed his doctorate in archaeology at Rome’s La Sapienza University.
Piccirillo directed several excavation and restoration projects, including those at the Memorial of Moses on Mt. Nebo, and the sites of Madaba, Umm er-Rasas and Bethany beyond the Jordan, all in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan.
In 1992 Piccirillo was instrumental in creating the Madaba Mosaic School, which trains workers in the preservation and restoration of ancient mosaics.
Father Piccirillo was buried on his beloved Mt. Nebo, where Moses was permitted to see the Holy Land before he died.
Richard J. Scheuer, a mainstay of BAR’s scholarship program that sends dozens of volunteers every year to archaeological excavations in Israel and Jordan, died on November 7, 2008, at age 91.
Dick was a major force in archaeological, Israel and Jewish philanthropy. Beneficiaries of his largesse included the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, the Israel Exploration Society, the Jewish Museum in New York and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), the major professional organization of Near Eastern archaeologists.
He served as a trustee of many of these institutions and took an avid amateur interest in the archaeology of all periods. He was a wise counselor and a warm friend.
He regularly attended conferences of professional archaeologists, where scores, sometimes hundreds, of scholarly lectures are delivered over several days. He was the only person who could sit through more of these lectures than I.—H.S.