Yohanan Aharoni was an Israeli archaeologist and historical geographer, chairman of the Department of Near East Studies and chairman of the Institute of Archeology at Tel-Aviv University.

Life

Born to the Aronheim family, in Germany, June 7, 1919, Aharoni immigrated to Palestine in 1933. He studied at the Hebrew Reali School

Hebrew Reali School

The Hebrew Reali School of Haifa , located in Haifa, Israel, is one of the country's oldest private schools.-History:...

 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...

, and later at the Mikve Yisrael agricultural school. He married Miriam Gross and became a member of kibbutz Alonim

Alonim

Alonim is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Lower Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In 1947 Alonim had a population of over 450. In 2006 it had a population of 521....

.

Career

Aharoni studied archeology at the 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...

 and began to teach there in 1954. By 1966 he was a full professor, but in 1968 he moved to Tel-Aviv University and became chairman of the Department of Near East Studies and chairman of the Institute of Archeology.

One of the main debates in Israeli archaeology in the early days of the State of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 concerned the Israelite settlement of the land in the Bronze Age. Aharoni, supported the theory of
German biblical scholar, Albrecht Alt

Albrecht Alt

Albrecht Alt , was a leading German Protestant theologian.Eldest son of a Lutheran minister, he completed high school in Ansbach and studied theology at the Friedrich-Alexander-University in Erlangen and the University of Leipzig...

, claiming that the archaeological evidence supported the story of the Israelite settlement told in the Old Testament's Book of Judges; a gradual process of settling the land of Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...

, which was followed only later by the military defeat of the Canaanite city-states. This theory came to be known as the school of "peaceful infiltration" in this settlement debate, and is widely accepted today. Aharoni's main opponent in this debate was Hebrew University's 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:...

, who backed the quick and decisive Israelite military victory theory, over the Canaanite city-states.

Aharoni participated in many excavations, including Ramat Rachel

Ramat Rachel

Ramat Rachel is a kibbutz located south of Jerusalem in Israel, as an enclave within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries. Overlooking Bethlehem and Rachel's Tomb and situated within the Green Line, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council...

, Tel Arad

Tel Arad

Tel Arad or 'old' Arad is located west of the Dead Sea, about 10 km west of modern Arad in an area surrounded by mountain ridges which is known as the Arad Plain. The site is divided into a lower city and an upper hill which holds the only ever discovered 'House of Yahweh' in the land of...

, Tel Be'er Sheva

Tel Be'er Sheva

Tel Be'er Sheva is an archeological site in southern Israel believed to be the remains of the biblical town of Beersheba. It lies to the east of the modern city of Beersheba and to the east of the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva.-Biblical Beersheba:...

, Tel Hazor and Lachish

Lachish

Lachish was an ancient Near East town located at the site of modern Tell ed-Duweir in the Shephelah, a region between Mount Hebron and the maritime plain of Philistia . The town was first mentioned in the Amarna letters as Lakisha-Lakiša...

. He also studied ancient roadways in the Negev

Negev

The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...

, and participated in the discovery of the Bar Kokhba caves while surveying and excavating the Dead Sea region in 1953.

Publications

In addition to numerous articles published in archaeological journals, Aharoni wrote six books:

• The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography (1967) Link to the 1979 edition on Google Books
• Beer-Sheba I: Excavations at Tel Beer-Sheba , 1969-1971 (1973)
• Investigations at Lachish: The sanctuary and the residency (1975)
• The Arad Inscriptions with Joseph Naveh (1981) - English version
• Macmillan Bible Atlas with Michael Avi-Yonah (1993)
• Carta Bible Atlas (2002)

External links

• Rainey, Anson F. "In Memoriam: Yohanan Aharoni" The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 39, No. 2 (May, 1976), pp. 53–54 JSTOR