Nahman Avigad
Date of Birth :
1905- 1902
Place of Birth :
Israel
Country :
Israel
Field of Expertise :
Epigraphy
Educational background :
Avigad studied architecture in what is now the town of Brno, Czech Republic. Avigad emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1926. He married Shulamit (née Levin) Avigad in 1928. He worked in the excavations of the Beth Alpha synagogue and the Hamat Gader synagogue.
Avigad earned his PhD in 1952, with a dissertation was on the tombs of the Kidron Valley, Jerusalem. He taught at Hebrew University from 1949 and until his retirement in 1974.
Acheivements / Contributions :
He directed the dig at Beit She'arim beginning in 1953. Avigad also worked on the excavation of the Masada mountaintop complex built by Herod the Great. He was involved in the exploration of caves in the Judean desert, and published one of the Dead Sea scrolls[1].
According to Bible Scholar Frank Moore Cross, Avigad “was Israel’s most distinguished epigraphist in his generation, and one of the great figures in the history of Hebrew and Jewish epigraphy.”
Bibliography :
Discovering Jerusalem
