Humanities

Where were Herod the Great's Royal Alabaster Bathtubs Quarried?

Where were Herod the Great's Royal Alabaster Bathtubs Quarried?

17 May, 2022

From the Middle Bronze Age, Egypt played a crucial role in the appearance of calcite-alabaster artifacts in Israel, and the development of the local gypsum-alabaster industry. The absence of ancient calcite-alabaster quarries in the Southern Levant (modern day Israel and Palestine) led to the assumption that all calcite-alabaster vessels found in the Levant originated from Egypt, while poorer quality vessels made of gypsum were local products.

Research
Humanities
lachish_the_assyrian_ramp

Siege Ramps and Breached Walls: Ancient Warfare and the Assyrian Conquest of Lachish

9 November, 2021

Back in the day, the Assyrians were one of the Near East’s superpowers, controlling a land mass that stretched from Iran to Egypt. They accomplished this feat with military technologies that helped them win any open-air battle or penetrate any fortified city.  While today, air power and bunker busters help win the war, back in the ninth to the seventh centuries BCE, it was all about the siege ramp, an elevated structure that hauled battering ramps up to the enemy’s city walls and let the Neo-Assyrians soldiers wreak havoc on their enemies.

Research
Humanities
New Fossils Reveal Interactions Between Ancient Human Groups Living Together in the Levant

New Fossils Reveal Interactions Between Ancient Human Groups Living Together in the Levant

24 June, 2021

A recent archeological dig in central Israel unearthed evidence that Homo sapiens, humans that inhabit the earth today, likely lived alongside a group of archaic humans known as the Middle Pleistocene Homo.  This discovery, and the international collaborations that made it possible, provide the first evidence that the two human types lived at the same time and interacted with one another.  Their findings were published today in Science.

Research
Humanities
Rotem Bar-Or

HUJI Bites: Smart Cities with Dr. Rotem Bar-Or

9 April, 2021

Hebrew University students aren’t the only ones getting smarter!  Smart Cities are radically changing the way we live - using technology to provide services and solve city problems – improving everyday essentials like transportation, accessibility, and sustainability for the lives of that cities citizens. At the forefront of this initiative in Israel is Hebrew University’s Department of Geography in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Staff
Research
Humanities