During the Byzantine period the Judaean Desert was inhabited by hundred (perhaps even thousands) of monks who lived in two types of monasteries. The first one was known as coenobium; here the monks lived in a common complex and were part of a hierarchic social system. Their daily schedule included prayers, common meals and work. The second type, unique to Palestine, was known as laura, where the monks, known as anchorites, lived in solitude in their cells for most of the week and gathered for common meal and prayer only on Saturday and Sunday. The Laura type was common in Judaean Desert especially in the caves in the cliffs and ravines.
The research, which began in my MA thesis, strove to analyze the nature of the laura monasteries, examining the pattern of their location, water system, economy and social organization.
As part of this project, an archaeological field survey carried out in the Laura of St. Firmin in Nahal Michmas (Wadi Suweinit) uncovered inscriptions in Greek and in Christian-Palestinian Aramaic (CPA).
For almost a thousand years, from the second century BC to the eighth century CE, there were permanent settlement in the Negev desert. During the Byzantine period this phenomenon was at its height with seven large settlements, known as the ancient towns of the Negev – Haluza, Rehovot in the Negev, Nitzana, Shivta, Avdat, Mamshit and Kh. Saadon - and many farm houses which flourished in this arid region. The inhabitants lived in well-built stone houses and built large churches, decorated with mosaics, marble items, frescos and Greek inscriptions. They maintained vine and olive orchards, producing wine and olive oil. They collected every drop of the runoff water from the hill-slopes and built their agricultural fields in the wadi beds below.
The aim of this research, which was initially my PhD thesis, was to unravel the causes which led to the success of these settlements in such an arid environment from two perspectives: the first related to social organization, both local and imperial, and the second – the contribution of physical features such as water collection, agriculture etc.
As part of this project the question of the nature of the climate in antiquity was examined; the results indicated that the climate was similar to the present climate.
This project was presented in a book in Hebrew, many articles and a web-publication of the archaeological survey.
Being the Holy City, Jerusalem was described throughout history in many books and treatises. In many of them the city was also depicted in maps and views. Some of these presented Jerusalem as it was really seen by pilgrims and travelers, while others presented the city in an imaginary manner, based on interpretations of the Holy Scriptures; many others, combined both realistic and imaginary elements. All of these were copied and imitated by many other artists and authors; hence the number of maps of Jerusalem is fairly large, starting with from the sixth century Madaba Mosaic map up to the early accurate maps drawn in the 19th century.
This research project attempted to investigate several aspects:
A book in Hebrew, a book in English and many articles were the fruits of this project.
To the Maps clicke here
The research on the maps of Jerusalem led us to 3D maps and models of Jerusalem and its main monuments. These relief maps and models were made out of paper, metal, wood and other materials. They were built in various scales and measurements from small items to large ones. The largest one was built in a scale of 1:1 in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904 and exhibited about 300 buildings including the walls and the gates of Jerusalem.
During this project information on more than a hundred models was gathered. Some of these were presented in articles. This project was carried out jointly with Prof. Haim Goren who took part in gathering the information on many of these models and in the research on the models built by Konrad Schick.
Jewish maps of the Holy Land have been drawn by Jewish writers in biblical and rabbinical literature and in early modern Jewish scholarship. The earliest cartographic sketches were drawn by Rashi (1041 – 1105), and were soon followed by many Jewish scholars. On the other hand, Jewish mapmakers also chose to copy or imitate maps by Christian mapmakers. The maps depict the biblical borders of the Holy Land, the allotments of the tribes, and the forty years of wanderings in the desert. Most of them are in Hebrew, while others are in Yiddish, Ladino and other European languages.
This study followed the development of the Hebrew-Jewish maps from the first ones drawn by Rashi in the 11th Century to the early modern maps printed in the first quarter of the 20th century. It focuses on four aspects of these maps. It presents an up-to-date corpus of maps of various types and genres. It suggests a classification of these maps according to their source, shape and content. It presents and analyses the main topics that were depicted in the maps. Lastly, it tracks two parallel courses of development: traditional depictions of the borders of the Holy Land in simple sketches following Rashi’s tradition; and artistic pictorial maps which follow European-Christian maps.
A book and several articles were published. The Hebrew edition of the book won the Yitzhak Ben Zvi Prize in 2016, and the English edition was published by De Gruyer and Magnes Press in 2018.
As a land sanctified to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, the Land of Israel has garnered many and manifold accounts in a wide array of literary and graphical genres. Among them there are many maps. The earliest known map to depict the Holy Land is the Tabula Peutingeriana (Peutinger Table). The second earliest cartographic work is the famous sixth-century mosaic from Madaba. There are more than twenty medieval maps of Jerusalem and of the entire Land. Following the advent of the printing press in 1450, numerous maps were printed throughout Europe. Over the course of the nineteenth century, as part of the modern research of the Land of Israel modern accurate maps were developed.
Many of the pre-modern map-makers of the Holy Land and its surroundings drew their maps in accordance with the Holy Scriptures and the classical sources rather than realistic geographical information which they could not acquire. For this reason, the principal challenge of the research on pre-nineteenth century maps of the Holy Land is the gap between content and form.
The research project will explore the historical, cultural, and religious factors that influenced the development and content of maps of the Holy Land that were produced from their outset to the rise of modern cartographic measurement.
A book, based on this project, is in process of writing, together with Dr. Milka Levy-Rubin.
Jerusalemite Proskynetaria: Orthodox descriptions of the Holy Land from the 17th-18th centuries
Pilgrims visiting Jerusalem during the 17th-19th centuries used to buy religious souvenirs that belonged to two different written and artistic genres, both of which are known as proskynetarion (pl. proskynetaria). The first genre consists of illustrated manuscripts that describe the Holy Places in Jerusalem and in the Holy Land. A large number of copies of the illuminated manuscripts survived, bearing witness to the popularity of this genre. All of these were produced as booklets, and all carry the same text with minor variations. Most of them are in Greek but there are others in Russian, ancient Slavic, Serbian and even in Italian.
The second genre includes large icons depicting churches and sacred places in the Holy Land. Items of both genres were probably drawn and written in Jerusalem and its vicinity, by members of the Orthodox Patriarchate. These souvenirs were bought by pilgrims in Jerusalem who took them back home with them, thus disseminating them throughout the Orthodox world. The research project concentrates on the first genre but will try also to pour light on the inter-relations between the two.
The main aim of this research is to investigate thoroughly the Proskynetaria manuscripts from various aspects regarding their content and art, their development and the inter-relations between the two groups of Orthodox pilgrims’ souvenirs – the booklets on one hand and the icons on the other.
This research project will hopefully lead to a book. Several articles have already been published.
The landscape of Jerusalem hills is a cultural landscape that was designed and changed time and again by societies and cultures that influenced this region thoughout history. Each and every culture and period had its impact on this region creating a layered and complicated landscape. The aim of this project was to analyze the landscape by identifying various elements and corellating them to the various periods. The project began with a "journey in the Judaean hills in a time machine" through the last two thousand years. It then continued in a series of case studies, each of them discussing a specific period and phenomenon in the region.
The project led to a book published in Hebrew, by Resling in 2018