Inside BAR
004
This issue focuses on the world’s most fascinating city, Jerusalem—on its excavations and on its archaeological restorations.
A major dig which is exposing the original City of David is also exploring the city’s ancient underground water systems. Dig director Yigal Shiloh is the author of “Jerusalem’s Water Supply During Siege—The Rediscovery of Warren’s Shaft,” in which he tells how mountain climbers and mining engineers helped him reopen the interior of Jerusalem’s oldest water system. When not digging, Dr. Shiloh is a lecturer in archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This academic year he spent the fall semester lecturing at the Universities of California at San Diego and the winter semester teaching at Harvard. A Ph. D. graduate of Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology, Shiloh has also excavated at Arad, Masada, Megiddo, Hazor and in Jerusalem’s Citadel.
After excavation, many of Jerusalem’s archaeological sites are being preserved, restored and then integrated into the throbbing life of a modern city. Jerusalem, unlike so many ancient cities, is not an abandoned tell. To preserve and integrate ancient sites into a modern city challenges archaeologists, city planners and architects alike.
In “Keeping Jerusalem’s Past Alive,” Rivka Gonen describes several creative projects designed to allow the past and the present to continue to exist side by side. Currently on the faculty of the Bezalel Art Academy and the Hiatt Institute of Brandeis University in Jerusalem. Dr. Gonen is the author of several books including Grain in Antiquity. Gonen, who is also a field archaeologist, has directed the excavation of a Middle Bronze Age cemetery in the Hebron mountains and has served on the staff of the City of David excavations in Jerusalem.
Conservation of perishable ancient scrolls is Dodo Joseph Shenhav’s responsibility as head of the Restoration Laboratories of the Israel Museum. In “Saving the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Next 2000 Years,” Shenhav describes the scientific efforts being made to prevent further deterioration of these priceless documents originally discovered by bedouin shepherds in 1947. Shenhav immigrated to Israel from Hungary as a young boy. He studied art and restoration at the Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem, London City College, the Institute of Archaeology of London, Patologia del Libro in Rome, UNESCO Center in Rome, and at the Central Laboratory of Amsterdam. A sculptor as well as a conservator, Shenhav is married and has three children.
Adam Mikaya makes his second BAR appearance in this issue. Previously he reported on the “Politics of Ebla,” BAR 04:03. Although a pseudonym, Mikaya is now listed in important scholarly indices and his Ebla article has been widely cited. Mikaya’s article in the current issue, “Earliest Aramaic Inscription Uncovered in Syria,” reports on an important, as yet unpublished, Aramaic inscription found in Syria in 1979. Although it is the oldest Aramaic inscription ever discovered, hardly anyone knows about it. Mikaya has rarely been photographed, but he finally agreed to allow us to publish the silhouette pictured above. Mikaya lives with his wife and two children in a small town. While not engaged in scholarly sleuthing, he enjoys playing the flute.
Oded Borowski, a frequent BAR, Jr. author, also reappears in this issue. “Young Archaeologist Strikes Pay Dirt” describes how Borowski’s fifteen-year-old son, Jonathan, made a significant contribution to an archaeological dig. Dr. Borowski, director of the Modern Hebrew Program at Emory University in Atlanta, has dug at Tel Gezer, Tel Dan and at Tel Halif. This summer he will serve on the faculty of BAR’s Vacation-Seminar at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Jonathan, a tenth grade student in Atlanta, is an avid soccer player as well as an alert archaeology observer.
This issue focuses on the world’s most fascinating city, Jerusalem—on its excavations and on its archaeological restorations.
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