Here is where you will find the schedule of AIAS lectures for the coming months.
As you will be aware, all charities are going through hard times during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society is no exception. Although we do not charge for our lectures, any contribution to the general costs of the Society would be more than welcome, particularly from non-members.
Anyone who would like to make a donation, large or small, can send an email to: ad***@ai**.uk for details as to how to pay by credit card.
Our regular lectures are currently being held online, via Zoom, but we are also now hosting some in-person events at various locations in London and elsewhere. Check the lecture notices below for details.
King Solomon’s Mines Revisited: 10 Years of Excavations in the Timna Valley — PROFESSOR EREZ BEN-YOSEF
Thursday, 10 October 2024, at 5:00 pm BST (online, via Zoom)
Tel Aviv University excavations in the Timna Valley have demonstrated that the peak of industrial activities occurred during the 10th century BC — and not during the time of the Egyptian New Kingdom, as previously believed.
So this raises the question of who was responsible for these vast mining activities. Could the Aravh copper from this region have been the source of King David and Solomon’s wealth in Jerusalem?
This lecture will explore these questions through the finds from 10 years of excavations in this fascinating region.
Registration details will be posted here in October. Zoom access will be from 4:45 pm.
Joint lecture with the Institute of Jewish Studies
Monday 11 November 2024 at 6.00pm (GMT) on Zoom.
Dr Eyal Baruch (Bar-Ilan University) will be talking about ‘Ritual Baths (Mikvehs) in Synagogues: Between Law (Halakhah) and Piousness’.
The discovery of mikvehs in Early Roman Period synagogues fits well with the discovery of many domestic mikvehs – in some settlements, a mikveh was unearthed in almost every house – and together seem to indicate that large segments of Jewish society followed halakhaic norms concerning purity and impurity. Mikvehs are so prevalent, that the synagogues in which mikvehs were discovered are surrounded by houses with mikvehs, which raises the question why were so many public mikvehs needed.
Registration details will be posted here in due course. Zoom access will be from 5:45 pm.
Exploring the Holy Land with Josephus in Hand — PROF. TESSA RAJAK. Special Lecture (AIAS members only)
Thursday, 12 December 2024, 5:00 — 8:00 pm (Wiener Library, London)
This lecture will be part of a special event to celebrate AIAS Trustee Barbara Barnett’s 100th birthday. More information, including the lecture topic, will be posted here closer to the date.
“A Wise Woman and a Bearded Male: Excavations at Tel Abel Beth Maacah in Northern Israel” – “Northern Exposure: The Tel Abel Beth Maacah Excavations”
DR. NAVA PANITZ-COHEN (Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Thursday 16 January 2025 at 5.00pm (GMT) with zoom access from 4.45pm (GMT), followed by Q&A.
Please register via the link here.
Tel Abel Beth Maacah is the northernmost site in Israel, sitting astride the modern border between Lebanon and Israel that, in fact, mirrors the interface between the ancient kingdoms of Israel, Aram Damascus, and the Phoenicians in the Iron Age. Excavations and surveys at the site have been conducted since 2012 by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles. This lecture will present the rich remains from the second and first half of the first millennia BCE, the Middle Bronze to the Iron Age II, that afford data enabling us to address long-standing questions concerning the organization of Canaanite city-states and the extent of the Israelite kingdom and the relations with its neighbors in this important border region.
Dr. Nava Panitz-Cohen is a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently co-director of the excavations at Tel Abel Beth-Maacah. She has excavated at many sites, including Tel Batash, Tel Rehov, and Tel Beth-Shean with Prof. Amihai Mazar, and participated in the publication of these projects. Her main research interest focuses on how ceramics inform on aspects of ancient society and culture.