A Founding Father of Israeli Archaeology

Benjamin Mazar (1906–1995) was one of the patriarchs of Israeli archaeology.^a Born in Russia, Mazar studied Near Eastern philology in Germany, where he took his doctorate at the age of 22. After emigrating to Palestine in 1928, he learned the fundamentals of field archaeology from the dominant figure in Biblical archaeology, William F. Albright, who became his most influential teacher. In 1943 Mazar joined the faculty of the Hebrew University as a lecturer in Biblical history and the historical geography of Palestine. He was promoted in 1951 to professor of the history of the Jewish people in the Biblical period and the archaeology of Palestine. The next year, he became the rector of the Hebrew University and then, the following year, its president. In 1968 he was awarded the Israel Prize, the country’s most prestigious honor.