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Biblical Archaeology Review 48:2, Summer 2022

Milestone: Ghazi Bisheh (1945–2022)

By Catreena Hamarneh

On January 24, 2022, the archaeological community in Jordan lost Ghazi Bisheh, an ardent scholar who devoted almost half a century to archaeological research. During his undergraduate studies at the University of Jordan, he became fascinated with archaeology, and in 1970 he left Jordan to earn a master’s degree in Islamic art and architecture from the University of Michigan, where he also received his Ph.D. Upon his return to Jordan in 1973, Ghazi joined the Department of Antiquities, first as director of registration and documentation and then as director of excavations. In 1989, he was promoted to Director-General, a position he held twice, first from 1989 to 1992 and then again from 1995 until his retirement in 1999.a Across his long career, he excavated at many sites in Jordan, including Hesban, Madaba, Qasr Hallabat, Qusayr ‘Amra, and Qastal, and he also devoted considerable energy to combating looting, antiquities trafficking, and illicit forgeries.—CATREENA HAMARNEH

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