Yizhar Hirschfeld

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Yizhar Hirschfeld explains the excavations in Tiberias (2005).

Yizhar Hirschfeld יזהר הירשפלד (born February 6, 1950 in Kibbutz Beth Keshet ; † November 16, 2006 in Jerusalem ) was an Israeli archaeologist. His areas of expertise were the Greco-Roman and the Byzantine epoch. He was internationally known and was considered a representative of Israeli archeology.

Life

Hirschfeld grew up in Kirjat Tiw'on and Ashkelon and was interested in archeology from childhood . After completing his military service, he moved to Jerusalem and studied at the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University . For a thesis on Byzantine desert monasteries, the Hebrew University awarded him a doctorate (PhD) in 1987. Since 1989 he has held a chair at the institute, teaching as well as taking part in excavations.

The list of excavations he directed is long, and he also presented the results of most of the excavations in comprehensive publications.

  • Roman Baths by Hammat Gader (1979–1982, final report 1997);
  • Khirbet ed-Deir Monastery (1982–1987, final report 1999)
  • Ramat HaNadiv excavations, mainly two sites: Horvat Aqav (1984–1987) and Horvat Eleq (1989–1998, final report 2000);
  • Tiberias - Mount Berenice and Lower Town (1989–1994, final report 2004);
  • En-Gedi (1996–2002; the final report was presented at his funeral on November 17, 2006). The excavations at En Gedi expanded into an investigation of the entire Dead Sea region, with Qumran and Ain Feshkha .
  • Wine presses and aqueducts in Emmaus (1974–1975);
  • Early Christian Church in Horvat Berakhot (1975, together with Yoram Tsafrir );
  • Horvat Susiya (1976) and Shiqmona (1994) settlements;
  • Survey and investigation of the city of Shivta in the Negev (1999–2002);
  • Survey of monasteries in the Gaza region .

Hirschfeld became known to a larger audience because he took a minority opinion on Qumran, according to which it was not a matter of the settlement of a special religious group, but of an estate. He found striking similarities to estates such as Ofarim, Rujum el-Hamiri and Qasr el-Leja. (On the other hand, he assumed that a series of 28 small cells he had examined above En Gedi were inhabited by Essenes , as Pliny describes them.)

Publications (selection)

  • Qumran in Context. Reassessing the Archaeological Evidence , Hendrickson, 2004
  • Qumran - the whole truth. The archeology finds - revalued , Gütersloh 2006, ISBN 3-579-05225-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on Yizhar Hirschfeld in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France , accessed on February 3, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b Joseph Patrich: In Memoriam. Retrieved February 3, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Hirschfeld, Yizhar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Kibbutz Beth Keshet
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 2006
Place of death Jerusalem