Igor Kreimerman

University of Cambridge | Cam · McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Tell Beit Mirsim is one of the most prominent mounds in the Shephelah Region. The Site has been excavated by WF Albright and MG Kyle in the 1920s and 1930s and became a key site for the archaeology of the Southern Levnat. After 90 years the excavations have been renewed by the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The pape...

Cut-stone masonry is one of the most prominent features that characterizes monumental architecture, the appearance of which is imbued with symbolic meaning and is a corollary to wholesale changes in the societies of the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. The workshop held in Louvain-la-Neuve on the 8th and 9th of March 2018 aimed at exploring the sp...

The current study examines skeletons found in Bronze and Iron Age destruction contexts from the southern Levant, within the framework of behavioural archaeology and the archaeology of destruction. It addresses the rarity of skeletons in such contexts, and argues that it is due to two main reasons: 1) genuine siege warfare was rather rare, and most...

Many Near Eastern destruction layers are characterized by burnt, partially collapsed, mud-brick structures. Despite the prominence of these layers in archaeological field research, the processes that generated these layers are little understood. In order to explain field observations and identify patterns that may be useful for archaeological inter...

When and where the process of state formation took place in the biblical kingdom of Judah is heavily debated. Our regional project in the southwestern part of Judah, carried out from 2007 to the present, includes the excavation of three Iron Age sites: Khirbet Qeiyafa, Tel Lachish, and Khirbet al-Ra’i. New cultural horizons and new fortification sy...

In 2007 the name “Khirbet Qeiyafa” was still unknown both to professional archaeologists and to the public. In 2008 Khirbet Qeiyafa became world-famous. This spectacular success is entirely due to the figure of King David, who is so well known from the biblical tradition but is a very elusive figure from the archaeological or historical point of vi...

Until recently, distinguishing between Late Persian and Early Hellenistic pottery assemblages in the Shephelah and the Hill Country of Judea was imprecise and somewhat elusive. Based on new numismatic data, two phases of Stratum III at Khirbet Qeiyafa can now be securely dated to this time span. Analysis of the respective pottery assemblages allows...

The excavations at Hirbet Qreyafa provide the first instance in pre-classical Levantine archaeology where every stage of the construction of a settlement is archaeologically attested and contemporaneous: from the quarry to completion. Stones of various sizes and in various stages of extraction were uncovered at the numerous quarries excavated insid...