Prof. David Adan-Bayewitz

Professor of Archaeology

Dr. Simon Krauthammer Chair in Archaeology

Head, Institute of Archaeology

Guest Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

B.A. in Archaeology and Jewish History 1978, Hebrew University
M.A. summa cum laude in Archaeology 1982, Hebrew University
Ph.D. summa cum laude in Archaeology 1986, Hebrew University

My research focuses on the cultural, economic and settlement history of Roman Judaea/Palaestina. I use several independent classes of evidence, resulting from archaeological excavation and survey, experimental work--high precision chemical composition analysis of archaeological ceramics conducted by our Bar-Ilan University-Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory research team, and other experimental work--and study of literary texts of Roman date.

An important component of my research involves the use of new research methods and approaches to address archaeological and historical problems (with funding from the United States National Science Foundation, the United States Israel Binational Science Foundation, the Israel Science Foundation, and other sources). The latter work has wide applications for research in other regions and periods.

Research interests:

• Use of experimental approaches and new research methods to address archaeological and historical problems.
• The cultural, economic, and settlement history of the peoples of Judaea/Palaestina in the Roman period.
• The relationship between archaeological and analytical evidence, and information provided by Rabbinic literature and other ancient texts.
• Archaeological field methods and their application for investigating settlement patterns and processes.
• Archaeological ceramics.
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• Recent studies:

•   Silver concentrations in ancient pottery as evidence for evaluating the nature of archaeological remains (Adan-Bayewitz et al. 2006, 2010).
•   Chemical composition analysis of ceramics as an aid for chronological differentiation of archaeological sites and excavation strata (Adan-Bayewitz et al. 2008, 2009).
•   Comparative investigation of archaeological field methods, at Dabiyya, Yahudiya, Gamala and other Golan sites, 2001 - (with C. Ben David).
•   Ties between northern Judaea and its vicinity and the Jerusalem area in the late Second Temple period (late first century B.C.E. - 70 C.E.) (Adan-Bayewitz et al. 2008, in press).
•   Differentiation of ceramic chemical composition and vessel morphology at two production locations at a single settlement, and its methodological significance (Adan-Bayewitz et al. 2009).