Eilat Mazar

Eilat Mazar with Reuven Rivlin , 2015

Eilat Mazar ( Hebrew אילת מזרBorn September 10, 1956 ) is an Israeli archaeologist. Her areas of expertise are the archeology of Israel and Phoenician archeology.

Life

Eilat Mazar is the granddaughter of Benjamin Mazar , the founder of Israeli archeology.

Eilat Mazar received his PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1997. She works at the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

After Benjamin Mazar's death in 1995, she was commissioned by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to take over his projects and publications. She was responsible for the publications of her grandfather's excavations on the Temple Mount (1968–1978). These were published in the journal Qedem .

Eilat Mazar is the mother of four children and lives in Jerusalem.

Excavations

Axially

From 1988 Mazar directed the excavations of the cemetery of the ancient Phoenician city of Achsiv . She excavated the southern, eastern and northern cemeteries. Dozens of Phoenician family graves were found. A tofet with dozens of cremated burials and crematoriums was also discovered among them . Most of the finds are from the 10th – 6th centuries. Century BC Chr.

City of David

Between 2005 and 2008 Mazar directed the excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem on behalf of the Institute of Archeology of the Hebrew University. These digs were funded by Roger and Susan Hertog and supported by the Shalem Center and the Elad Foundation. (The Likud-affiliated Shalem Center is dedicated to a renewal of Zionism. The Elad Foundation, which is considered right-wing, aims to establish a Jewish presence in the historic City of David.)

Mazar's claim was controversial that the structure she referred to as the “Large Stone Structure” was David's palace. In this structure was found clay seals with a Hebrew inscription with the name "Juchal, the son of Shelemia". He is mentioned twice as a high official in the Bible. A second clay seal was found near the first seal in July 2008. This second seal had an inscription with the name "Gedaliah, son of Pashhur", which is mentioned in the Bible together with Juchal. On the south side of the excavation area, Mazar exposed a wall that she interpreted as the wall of Nehemiah .

Ophel

Eliat Mazar, then twenty years old, had already taken part in the excavations of her grandfather Benjamin Mazar on the Jerusalem Ophel in 1986/87 . The findings were published in the scientific journal Qedem 29 in 1989.

Their own later excavations uncovered structures from the royal era. She interpreted this as part of the city wall of Jerusalem, which was built by King Solomon in the 10th century BC.

She discovered a gold treasure from Byzantine times 50 meters south of the foot of the Temple Mount , probably deposited in connection with the Persian conquest of Jerusalem (614). In one pocket there was a 10 cm gold medallion with a menorah , a shofar horn and a Torah scroll, and in another pocket some gold coins.

In 2009 over thirty seal impressions were found at the Ophel excavations. Among them was a seal that mentions the biblical king Hezekiah , who ruled over the southern kingdom of Judah . It is dated to the late period of his reign, around the year 704 BC. BC, making it one of the oldest archaeological finds of a seal that mentions a king of the northern or southern kingdom.

Publications (selection)

• Did I Find King David's Palace? . In: Biblical Archeology Review . 32, No. 1) (January / February, 2006, pp. 16-27, 70. ISSN  0098-9444
• The Phoenician Family Tomb N.1 at the Northern Cemetery of Achziv (10th-6th Centuries BCE). Sam Turner Expedition. Final Report of the Excavations . Cuadernos de Arquelogia Mediterranea, Vol. 10, Barcelona 2004.
• The Phoenicians in Achziv, The Southern Cemetery. Jerome L. Joss Expedition. Final Report of Excavations 1988-1990 . Cuadernos de Arquelogia Mediterranea, Vol. 7, Barcelona 2003.
• The Complete Guide to the Temple Mount Excavations . Shoham Academic Research and Publication, Jerusalem 2002, ISBN 965-90299-1-8 .
• The Monastery of the Virgins - Byzantine Period - Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem . Institute of Archeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1999
• with Benjamin Mazar: Excavations in the South of the Temple Mount. The Ophel of Biblical Jerusalem (= Quedem 29). Institute of Archeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
  • Volume II: The Temple Mount Excavations in Jerusalem 1968–1978 Directed by Benjamin Mazar Final Reports Vol. II: The Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods. (= Qedem 43), Jerusalem 2003.
  • Volume III The Byzantine period. (= Qedem 46), Jerusalem 2007.
  • Volume IV: The Tenth Legion in Aelia Capitolina . (= Qedem 52), Jerusalem 2011.
• Preliminary Report on The City of David Excavations 2005 at the Visitor's Center Area . Jerusalem 2007
• The Palace of King David, Excavations at the Summit of the City of David. Preliminary Report of Seasons 2005-2007 . Jerusalem 2007.
• Discovering the Solomonic Wall in Jerusalem . Jerusalem 2011.
• The Walls of the Temple Mount . Jerusalem 2011.
• The Northern Cemetery of Achziv (10th-6th Centuries BCE), The Tophet Site. Sam Turner Expedition, Final Report of the Excavations. In: Cuadernos de Arqueologia Mediterranea , Vol. 19-20, Barcelona 2013.
• The Discovery of the Menorah Treasure at the Foot of the Temple Mount. Jerusalem 2013.

Web links

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

• CV at the Department of Archeology, Hebrew University
• Eilat Mazar's website at the Department of Archeology, Hebrew University
• City of David Jerusalem
• Video from the Hebrew University of the Temple Mount Treasure

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eilat Mazar. (No longer available online.) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Archeology, archived from the original on July 31, 2016 ; accessed on July 31, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ^ Temple Mount Excavations. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Archeology, accessed July 31, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Jer 37,3  LUT and Jer 38,1  LUT
4. ↑ Jer 38,1  LUT
5. ^ City of David. (No longer available online.) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Archeology, archived from the original on July 31, 2016 ; accessed on July 31, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ cf. 1 Kings 3,1  LUT
7. ^ Archeology.huji.ac.il
8. ^ First seal impression of an Israelite or Judean king ever exposed in situ in a scientific archaeological excavation . ( phys.org [accessed January 23, 2018]).