Benjamin Mazar

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Benjamin Mazar in 1936 in Bet She'arim

Benjamin Mazar born as Benjamin Zeev Maisler (born June 28, 1906 in Ciechanowiec , then Russian Empire ; † September 8, 1995 in Jerusalem , Israel ) was one of the first Israeli historians and is considered the "father" of biblical archeology in Eretz Israel .

Life

Youth and Studies

Benjamin Maisler was one of five children of a wealthy Russian-Polish tobacco dealer. He spent his childhood in the Crimea. In the 1920s he studied archeology and Assyriology at the universities of Berlin and Gießen , where he obtained his doctorate in 1928 under the Assyriologist Julius Lewy with a thesis on the history and ethnography of Syria and Palestine. His first publication was the article Amarna in the Encyclopaedia Judaica (1928).

Teaching

In December 1928 he came by ship to Haifa, then the British Mandate of Palestine . He joined his family, who had previously emigrated to Palestine. He spent the following years in Jerusalem under difficult financial conditions as a private scholar until in 1943 he was offered a professorship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Initially lecturer in Biblical History and Historical Geography of Palestine, he was given the chair in 1951 for the History of the Jewish People in Biblical Times and Archeology of the Land of Israel, which he held until his retirement in 1977.

In 1952 he became rector and from 1953 president of the university for eight years. It was during this time that Maisler took on the Hebrew name Mazar . Mazar was the founder of the Archaeological Council of Israel and Chairman of the Israel Exploration Society from 1959 to the end of his life . Mazar was involved in the expansion of the campus of the Hebrew University in Givat Ram and in the establishment and completion of the Hadassah Medical School and the local hospital.

Mazar's circle of students in his early years at the Hebrew University included several scholars who later became internationally known, such as Jochanan Aharoni , Mosche and Trude Dothan , Avraham Malamat , Chajim and Miriam Tadmor.

archeology

Benjamin Mazar took part in the following excavations:

  • 1930 Tell Beit Mirsim ; Direction: William Foxwell Albright , whose stratigraphy and ceramic typology Mazar took over. Mazar considered Albright his mentor.
  • 1931 Ramat Rachel.
  • 1936-1940. 1956. 1959. Jewish catacombs of Bet Shearim ; the first dig that Mazar conducted.
  • 1944–1945 Bet Jerach, an important early Bronze Age settlement.
  • 1948–1950 Tell Qasileh in what is now Tel Aviv . This was a city of the Philistines .
  • 1949. 1961-1962. 1964–1965 En Gedi, numerous finds from the Iron Age (focus from the late 7th century BC to the Persian period).
  • 1968–1977 Old City of Jerusalem : continuous excavations in East Jerusalem focused on the southern and western enclosing walls of the Herodian temple platform as well as the stairs and entrances that led to this esplanade. At the same time, caliphate palaces of the Omayyads were uncovered.
  • 1986–1987 Ophel, together with his granddaughter Eilat Mazar .

Mazar's most important excavations were those south and west of the Temple Mount . They were logistically particularly complex and politically controversial. Mazar did not publish the final scientific reports of these Jerusalem excavations until his death. This was because after the excavation was over, there was a controversy between field director Meir Ben Dov and Benjamin Mazar. Mazar had the excavation diaries, plans and drawings in safekeeping, while Ben Dov had the archaeological finds. The publication of the final reports was finally carried out by Eilat Mazar; but in the meantime some drawings, photographs and also finds were lost in various ways. Therefore these final reports are incomplete.

family

Benjamin Mazar (then Maisler) had been married to Dina Schimschi since 1932. The couple had a son, Ori.

Mazar was the brother-in-law of the three-time President of Israel Yitzchak Ben Zwi ( Isaak Schimschilewitsch). Other Israeli archaeologists come from Mazar's family, for example his son Ori Mazar, his granddaughter Eilat Mazar, his grandson Dan Mazar and his nephew Amichai Mazar .

Honors

  • 1968: Israel Prize for his studies on Judaism
  • 1968: Yakir Yerushalaim Prize

Publications (selection)

as Benjamin Maisler
  • Studies on the ancient history and ethnography of Syria and Palestine, Giessen 1930 (= dissertation).
  • The Graphic Historical Atlas of Palestine, Part 2200–333 BC, Israel in Biblical Times, Szapiro, Tel Aviv 1942.
as Benjamin Mazar
  • Bet-Sh'earim, 3 volumes 1944; New edition: Massada Press, Jerusalem 1973 for the Israel Exploration Society, ISBN 0-8135-0762-6 .
  • with Moshe Davis: The Illustrated History of the Jews, Harper & Row, New York 1963.
  • together with Trude Dothan and I. Dunayevsky : En-Gedi : The First and Second Seasons of Excavations, 1961–1962; Department of Antiquities and Museums in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Jerusalem 1966.
  • as editor: Patriarchs, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA 1970, ISBN 0-813506158 .
  • World History of the Jewish People, Volume 2, Allen, London 1971.
  • as editor: Judges. Jewish History Publication Publishers Ltd., New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA 1971, ISBN 0-813506638 .
  • The Mountain of the Lord. Doubleday, Garden City, NY, USA.
  • Archeology in the footsteps of Christianity: New excavations in Jerusalem, Pawlak, Herrsching 1988, ISBN 3-88199-383-5 .
  • together with Eilat Mazar : Excavations in the South of the Temple Mount. The Ophel of Biblical Jerusalem, Qedem: Monographs of the Institute of Archeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, No. 29 1989 ISSN  0333-5844 .
Collection of items for the 85th birthday

literature

Web links

Commons : Benjamin Mazar  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Frank Moore Cross: In Memoriam: Benjamin Mazar, 1906-1995 , 1996, pp. 1-3.
  2. ↑ The obituary in the Israel Exploration Journal gives the date of birth June 26, 1905.
  3. ↑ a b c d Professor Benjamin Mazar, 1906-1995: In memoriam . In: Israel Exploration Journal 45, 4/1995, pp. 209-211.
  4. ↑ Jodi Magness: Review of: The Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem 1968-1978 Directed by Benjamin Mazar, Final Reports, Volume II: The Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods by Eilat Mazar . In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 337 (February 2005), pp. 104-106.
personal data
SURNAME Mazar, Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maisler, Benjamin Zeev (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli historian and biblical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Ciechanowiec
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1995
Place of death Jerusalem