Apollonia-Arsuf Excavation Project Apollonia-Arsuf is located on the
Mediterranean coast, within the northern city limits of
Herzliya. The fieldwork at the site began in 1976 as a
salvage excavation and became an academic endeavor of the institute in 1982. The site shows a continuous occupation from the late 6th/early 5th century BCE through the 13th century CE. Research at the site includes surveys and excavations inside and outside the medieval walled town (the site's core settlement and hinterland), as well as
underwater surveys and excavations in the sea off its archaeological remains. Recent seasons of excavations have been focused on the site's
Byzantine and
Crusader-period remains, within the medieval town and in the Crusader castle, whose destruction is dated to March–April 1265, never to be properly resettled ever since. Directed by
Israel Roll (until 2006) and Oren Tal (since 2006).
Ashdod-Yam Archaeological Project Ashdod-Yam is located on the
Mediterranean coast, within the city limits of modern
Ashdod and its ancient site Tel Ashdod. The site was inhabited primarily from the Late Bronze Age (15h-12th centuries BCE) and is identified with Asdudimmu, conquered by the
Neo-Assyrian Empire in the late 8th century BCE. The site was known in
Byzantine times as Azotos Paralios. The fieldwork started in 2013 and focuses on an Iron Age compound linked to the Assyrians, and a unique Byzantine church with early evidence of
Georgian presence in the Holy Land. The project is directed by Alexander Fantalkin.
Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition Tel Azekah (Tell Zakariya) is located in the
Shephelah and yields occupational levels that span the Early Bronze Age to the Roman period. The site has revealed monumental remains from the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000-1500 BCE) and key destruction contexts from the Late Bronze Age III (12th century BCE). The site shed light on the presence and history of the
Kingdom of Judah in the region (10th-6th centuries BCE) and later settlements during the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods. Started in 2010, the expedition is directed by and
Oded Lipschits, Manfred Oeming (
Heidelberg University) and Sabine Kleiman
Tel Hadid Archaeological Project Tel Hadid is located east of
Lod in central Israel. The site dates to as early as the 3rd millennium BCE and yielded key finds related to
Neo-Assyrian rule (8th–7th century BCE), Hellenistic period (4th–1st centuries BCE), and Byzantine period (4th–7th centuries CE), the Late Islamic period and the Modern Era (15th–20th century CE). The fieldwork, directed by Ido Koch and James Parker (
NOBTS), began in 2018 and includes a survey and excavation at the site.
Givati Parking Lot Excavation (Jerusalem) The renewed
Givati Parking Lot excavation is a joint project between Tel Aviv and the
Israel Antiquities Authority, started in 2017 and directed by Yuval Gadot and Yiftah Shalev (IAA). The site forms part of
ancient Jerusalem. The site contains remains of public structures dating to between the late Iron Age (6th century BCE), through the
Persian period and the
Hasmonean period (2nd-1st century BCE). The renewed excavations seek to shed further light on the settlement history of ancient Jerusalem in these periods.
German-Israeli Tell Iẓṭabba Excavation Project Tell Itzabba is located in northern Israel, within the city limits of
Beit She'an, north of its ancient site. It is a multi-period site containing remains from as early as the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BCE) to the Early Islamic period (6th-11th centuries CE). It focuses on the study of Tell Iẓṭabba in
Seleucid period, at the time known as "Nysa", and its relation to the later Roman settlement which formed part of the
Decapolis. The project is directed by Oren Tal since 2019, and deals with the urban layout, infrastructure, water management and other aspects of the site. Among the topics studied are private architecture, as well as dietary habits during the Hellenistic period through archaeobotanical, archaeozoological and
residue analysis studies.
Neustadter Masada Expedition The site of
Masada is a mountain fortress in the
Judean Desert, known as a palace of
Herod the Great from the late 1st century BCE and the last stronghold of the Jewish rebels during the
First Jewish–Roman War. The renewed excavations are directed by Guy Stiebel since 2017, aim to shed light on the pre-Herodian periods at the site, as well as previously unknown remains from later periods, possibly the Early Islamic period.
Megiddo Expedition Tel Megiddo is located in the
Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. It is one of the most important sites in the history of the Levant, dating to as early as the 8th millennium BCE and serving as a key site throughout the entire Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 37th to 6th centuries BCE). Directed by
Israel Finkelstein,
Matthew J. Adams, and Mario A.S. Martin since 1994, the goals of the renewed excavations are to re-examine Tel Megiddo's stratigraphy and chronology as well as the development of new research methods such as
Ancient DNA, geoarchaeology, scientific dating etc.
Tel Shaddud Regional Project Tel Shaddud is located in the
Jezreel Valley in northern Israel, around 10 km north-east of Megiddo. It is identified with a
Canaanite town mentioned as
śrt in
ancient Egyptian sources from the time of
Thutmose III and with the biblical town of Sarid, in the territory of the
Tribe of Zebulun, which is mentioned in the
Song of Deborah. The project started in 2022 and is directed by Omer Sergi, Karen Covello-Paran (
Israel Antiquities Authority), Hannes Bezzel (
University of Jena), Joachim Krause (
Ruhr University Bochum).
Qadas Historical Excavation Qadas was a
Palestinian village depopulated in 1948, located next to the
Israeli-Lebanese border. It is situated on
Tel Qedesh and its study directed since 2021 by Raphael Greenberg and Gideon Sulimani is a collaboration with Hebrew University excavations there. The project engages in
contemporary archaeology. It reveals the ruins of the village, abandoned during the
1948 Arab–Israeli war and demolished in 1966, as well as remains of a military base at the site associated with the
Arab Liberation Army, and the remains of human activity at the site by tourists, military units, artists and pilgrims to a recently identified saint's tomb.
Qesem Cave Project The
Qesem Cave is a prehistoric site located in central Israel next to
Rosh HaAyin. It yields items of the
Acheulo-Yabrudian complex and is dated to between 420,000 and 200,000 BCE. The excavation began in 2001, directed by
Avi Gopher (until 2016), Ran Barkai, Ella Assaf-Shpayer (Since 2023). It uncovered dental remains of an unknown
archaic human, post-dating the
Homo erectus and closely related to
Anatomically Modern Humans. The research includes studies of
geoarchaeology, prehistoric environment, dating and lithic technology.
Central Timna Valley Project (CTV) The
Timna Valley is located in the
Arava region in southern Israel. The valley contains dozens of sites related to ancient
copper mining dating to the Late Bronze Age to early Iron Age (13th-9th centuries BCE). The multi-disciplinary project, directed by
Erez Ben-Yosef since 2012, aims to shed light on the geopolitical role of these mines and their relation to the
New Kingdom of Egypt, the kingdoms of
Israel,
Judah and
Edom. It includes studies of archaeomagnetism, archaeozoology, archaeobotany and paleoenvironment. == Publications ==