Yizhar Hirschfeld (1950 – 16 November 2006) was an Israeli archaeologist studying Greco-Roman and Byzantine archaeology. He was an associate professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director of excavations at a number of sites around Israel, including Ramat Hanadiv,

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...

, and Khirbet ed-Deir. He also published a book on the archaeology of

Qumran Qumran ( he, קומראן; ar, خربة قمران ') is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli ...

in which he proposed an assessment of the site that was contrary to prevailing views. Professor Hirschfeld was born at Kibbutz Beth Keshet in Israel in 1950. He was already working on an excavation site in 1974 at

Emmaus Emmaus (; Greek: Ἐμμαούς, ''Emmaous''; la, Emmaus; , ''Emmaom''; ar, عمواس, ''ʻImwas'') is a town mentioned in the Gospel of Luke of the New Testament. Luke reports that Jesus appeared, after his death and resurrection, before tw ...

where he acted as excavation and survey director. From 1984 to 1987 he directed digs at

Ramat HaNadiv Ramat Hanadiv ( he, רמת הנדיב, ''Heights of the Benefactor''), is a nature park and garden in northern Israel, covering at the southern end of Mount Carmel between Zikhron Ya'akov to the north and Binyamina to the south. The Jewish Nati ...

. He received his doctorate at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology in 1987 and the following year he was awarded a Rothschild fellowship. He returned to Ramat Hanadiv in 1989, the year he also started work on excavations at Tiberias. In 1998, he was appointed as associate professor at the Hebrew University. From 1996–2002 Hirschfeld directed excavations at a site on a terrace overlooking

Ein Gedi Ein Gedi ( he, עֵין גֶּדִי‎, ), also spelled En Gedi, meaning "spring of the goat, kid", is an oasis, an Archaeological site, archeological site and a nature reserve in Israel, located west of the Dead Sea, near Masada and the Qu ...

, which consisted of a series of small dwellings. His analysis led him to conclude that " l features of the site—its location above Ein Gedi, simplicity, and unique nature—conform to

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

's (d. 79 A.D.) famous passage on the

Essenes The Essenes (; Hebrew: , ''Isiyim''; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, ''Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi'') were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st ce ...

". His proposal on the site (compare Aharoni 1958 BIES) has found little acceptance among archaeologists. The experience he gained working on Greco-Roman period rural settlements gave him the background to write his controversial book ''Qumran In Context'' (2004), in which he concluded on morphological grounds that Qumran was "a Judean manor house" p. 226 (and thus not the home of Essenes).

Hirschfeld on the internet

Ein Gedi 1998

Articles from ''

Liber Annuus ''Liber Annuus'' is a yearly academic journal of theology and Biblical archaeology published by Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and c ...

'':
The Monastery of Chariton. Survey and ExcavationsPlates

Qumran in the Second Temple Period. Reassessing the Archaeological EvidencePlates

En-Gedi: “A Very Large Village of Jews”Plates

Qumran in Context

Steven Bowman. Review. H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews. June 2005

Jodi Magness. Review
an

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirschfeld, Yizhar Israeli archaeologists Hebrew University of Jerusalem faculty Qumran 1950 births 2006 deaths 20th-century archaeologists