Ehud Netzer ( 13 May 1934, Jerusalem – 28 October 2010) was an Israeli architect, educator and archaeologist

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

, known for his extensive excavations at Herodium

Herodium

Herodium or Herodion is a volcano-like hill with a truncated cone located south of Jerusalem, near the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Herod the Great built a fortress and palace on the top of Herodium, and may have been buried there...

, where in 2007 he found the tomb of Herod the Great

Herod the Great

Herod , also known as Herod the Great , was a Roman client king of Judea. His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his...

; and the discovery of the oldest Jewish synagogue, located at Jericho.

Netzer served as a professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was a world-renowned expert on Herodian architecture

Herodian architecture

Herodian architecture is a style of classical architecture characteristic of the numerous building projects undertaken during the reign of Herod the Great, the Roman client king of Judea...

. Netzer worked at Masada

Masada

Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau, or horst, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE...

 with Yigal Yadin, and later completed the official excavation report for the site. He later led teams of archaeologists who did important fieldwork at the Herodian palace at Jericho

Jericho

Jericho ; is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently...

. At Herodium

Herodium

Herodium or Herodion is a volcano-like hill with a truncated cone located south of Jerusalem, near the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Herod the Great built a fortress and palace on the top of Herodium, and may have been buried there...

, in the desert near Bethlehem and south of Jerusalem, for more than three decades, Netzer oversaw extensive excavations focusing on remains at the foot and on the sides of the artificial mountain.

Academic career and work

Ehud Netzer was born in Haifa

Haifa

Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

 in 1934. He graduated with a degree in architecture from the Technion. He later obtained a Ph.D. in the field of archaeology from Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...

.

He became a professor at the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University. Netzer was eventually recognized as the world's foremost authority on Herodian architecture.

Netzer initiated and directed excavations at several building projects of Herod the Great, the ancient king of Judea. In the mid-1960s, Netzer was co-architect, together with I. Dunayevsky, of the excavations at Masada

Masada

Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau, or horst, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE...

, directed by Professor Yigael Yadin

Yigael Yadin

Yigael Yadin on 21 March 1917, died 28 June 1984) was an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.-Early life and military career:...

. After Yadin's death, Netzer completed the final excavation report The Buildings, Stratigraphy and Architecture of Masada. Later, Netzer directed the restoration of the Masada site on behalf of Israel's National Parks Authority.

In 1968, Netzer initiated and directed large-scale excavations at the site of Herod's winter palace at Jericho

Jericho

Jericho ; is a city located near the Jordan River in the West Bank of the Palestinian territories. It is the capital of the Jericho Governorate and has a population of more than 20,000. Situated well below sea level on an east-west route north of the Dead Sea, Jericho is the lowest permanently...

.

In 1972, he began excavating at the huge palace complex of Herodium, located in the desert outside Bethlehem. His first phase of work continued to 1987, as he excavated palace structures. Her returned to the dig from 1997–2000, and again from 2000–2010.The ancient Jewish historian, Josephus Flavius, had written that Herod's tomb was located at his fortified palace of Herodium.

From 1972-78, Netzer completed his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 dissertation at the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology on the subject of Herod's palaces at Herodium and Jericho. He became a senior lecturer at the university in 1981 and a professor in 1990. The subjects he taught combined architecture and archaeology. From 1985-93, he directed the Hebrew University expedition to Zippori (Sepphoris) in the lower Galilee

Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...

, which exposed a synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

. Its mosaic floor has been exhibited in the Jewish Museum

Jewish Museum (New York)

The Jewish Museum of New York, an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, is the leading Jewish museum in the United States. With over 26,000 objects, it contains the largest collection of art and Jewish culture outside of museums in Israel. The museum is housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in...

 in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

Herodium

Herodium

Herodium

Herodium or Herodion is a volcano-like hill with a truncated cone located south of Jerusalem, near the city of Bethlehem in the West Bank. Herod the Great built a fortress and palace on the top of Herodium, and may have been buried there...

 is an enormous, cone-shaped, man-made mountain, fortress palace built by Herod just outside Bethlehem. According to the ancient Romano-Jewish historian Josephus

Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...

, Herodium was the site of Herod's burial. Enclosed within the artificial hill was a fortress palace, which had previously been the focus of excavations beginning in 1963. Netzer began work on the extensive palace complex at the foot of the hill, which he labeled as "Lower Herodium".

From 1972–87, Netzer worked at Herodium, excavating the palace structures. He resumed work on the dig from 1997–2000, and again from 2000–2010. Beginning in 2006, excavations revealed a ramp winding around the hill from the lower palace complex and stadium. Along its path were discovered a theater and a monumental staircase, which led past a platform and remains which, in May 2007, Netzer identified as the probable tomb of King Herod. Netzer found the sarcophagus "shattered into hundreds of pieces", as described by Josephus, who wrote that it was done "by Jewish dissidents during the first revolt against the Romans between AD 66 and 72."

Jericho

Netzer excavated at Jericho from 1973, and continued working there over the next decade. At the oasis of Jericho, he uncovered new wings of Herod's winter palace, as well as a Hasmonean (Maccabean) winter palace containing a number of swimming pools and gardens. This is the major archaeological site to have survived from that period in Jewish history. The complex includes the Jericho Synagogue, built 50-70 BC and identified in 1998 as the oldest synagogue

Oldest synagogues in the world

The designation oldest synagogue in the world requires careful definition. Many very old synagogues have been discovered in archaeological digs. Some synagogues have been destroyed and rebuilt several times on the same site, so, while the site or congregation may be ancient, the building may be...

 that has ever been found.

Death

On 25 October 2010, Netzer fell and was seriously injured when a railing gave way at the dig at Herodium. He died of his injuries three days later at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital

Hadassah Medical Center

Hadassah Medical Center is a medical organization that operates two University hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.The hospital was founded by Hadassah,...

 in Jerusalem, Israel.

Published works

• The architecture of Herod, the great builder, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006 (Texts and studies in ancient Judaism, Bd. 117) ISBN 3-16-148570-X
• The Hebrew University excavations at Sepphoris during the years 1992-1996. Qadmoniot. No. 113, pp 2-21, 1997
• "Architectural development of Sepphoris during the Roman and Byzantine Periods", In: Archaeology and the Galilee: Texts and Contexts. pp. 117-130, 1997
• Promise and Redemption: A Synagogue Mosaic from Sepphoris, Jerusalem, Israel Museum, 44 pp., 1996
• "New evidence for Late Roman and Byzantine Sepphoris", In: The Roman and Byzantine Near East: Recent Archaeological. 1995, pp 162-176,
• Zippori, Jerusalem, Israel Exploration Society, 71 pp., 1994
• "Byzantine mosaics at Sepphoris: New finds", Israel Museum Journal. No. 10, pp 75-80, 1992

External links

• Expert on architecture of Herod the Great gives lecture 28 September, Cornell Chronicle, New York, 23 September 1999.
• Ehud Netzer Faculty page at Hebrew University of Jerusalem