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Trude Dothan Wins 1991 Percia Schimmel Award

Israel’s most prestigious archaeological prize, the Percia Schimmel Award for Distinguished Contribution to Archaeology in Eretz Israel and the Lands of the Bible, has been bestowed on Professor Trude Dothan. The distinguished honor is presented annually by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The judges for the 1991 award—Professor Ya‘akov Meshorer, Professor Nahman Avigad and Joseph Aviram—cited Dothan’s combination of “erudite scholarship and fieldwork” and particularly noted “her outstanding contribution to the research of the Philistines.”

Dothan is the E. L. Sukenik Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has directed or participated in several of the most important excavations in Israel—including Tell Qasile, Hazor, Deir el-Balah and the ongoing dig at Tel Miqne-Ehkron—and in the major excavation at Athienou, in Cyprus. Early in her professional career, Dothan became aware of the cultural affinity between the countries around the Mediterranean and ancient Israel, and this realization has suffused her work on different aspects of Philistine culture. Her book The Philistines and Their Material Culture (Yale Univ. Press, revised edition, 1982) is a standard reference on the Philistines and other Sea Peoples, as well as on the Early Iron Age in general.

Dothan first brought her expertise to BAR readers with “What We Know About the Philistines,” BAR 08:04. She also contributed to the two-part “Ekron of the Philistines” (“Part I: Where They Came From, How They Settled Down and the Place They Worshipped In,” BAR 16:01), which won her and collaborator Seymour Gitin the Fellner Award for the best BAR article of 1990.

Newsletters and Conference Feature Jordanian Archaeology

The Jordanian Friends of Archaeology Society invites antiquities enthusiasts everywhere to keep up-to-date on the latest discoveries in Jordan. Their monthly newsletter, featuring current fieldwork, publications and exhibitions, is now available to nonresident members of the society. Three times a year, members also receive Ancient Jordan, a newsletter that highlights Jordanian archaeology, history, ethnography and epigraphy. The annual nonresident membership fee is $15. For an application, contact Muna Zaghloul, Treasurer, Friends of Archaeology, P.O. Box 2440, Amman, Jordan.

The Fifth International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan will be held at The Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid from April 12 to 17, 1992. The conference theme is “The Arts and Technology of Jordan Throughout the Ages.”

Dates Set for Hazor Dig

The excavation at Hazor—one of the 38 seeking volunteers that were listed in the January/February issue—has set the dates for its 1992 season (see “1992 Excavation Opportunities: A Spirit of Discovery,” BAR 18:01). Work will be conducted in two three-week sessions, June 28 through July 17 and July 19 through August 7.

Correction

In “The Last Days and Hours at Masada,” BAR 17:06, an important acknowledgment was accidentally omitted and brought to our attention by Ehud Netzer. Archaeologist Jodi Magness of Brown University studied the armament (arrowheads, swords etc.) at Masada for the final report of the excavation. It was she who identified the two iron workshops in which arrowheads were prepared (rooms 442 and 456 in the western palace). An article by Magness on Roman warfare, including discussion of the arrowhead industry during the siege of Masada, will appear in a forthcoming BAR.

Two Recent Deaths

As we were going to press we received news that Hebrew University professor Nahman Avigad, one of Israel’s most distinguished archaeologists, died of cancer in Jerusalem on January 28 at age 86. An appreciation of Professor Avigad will appear in the next issue of BAR (“Nahman Avigad: In Memoriam,” BAR 18:03).

Albert Glock, dean of the archaeology department at Bir Zeit University, on the West Bank, was shot to death on January 19. It is not known whether the motive was political or personal. The 67-year-old American had lived on the West Bank for more than 20 years and was in charge of publishing the excavation report for Taanach.

Trude Dothan Wins 1991 Percia Schimmel Award