Message from the Dorot Director
Dear Friends,
October at the Albright is shaping up to be one of our busiest months of the year. Our fall lecture season is now in full swing, and we are grateful to everyone who has joined us on campus or on Zoom so far. We opened in September with talks on the Early Bronze Age in Jordan, German excavations at Tall Zirāʿa by our colleague Dieter Vieweger of the DEI, and research on the Holy Sepulchre by our Marcia and Oded Borowski/George A. Barton Research Fellow, Luca Brancazi. Our fellows also joined a field trip to the Iron Age site of El-Ahwat in Wadi Ara, followed by an obligatory visit to the Reuven Vineyard.
We are thrilled to share two pieces of good news. First, the Albright has received a second Federal Assistance Award through the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem for work at Zippori National Park. Second, our ECA Fellowships return for our 2027–2028 round. This month we are also delighted to host the Annual Meeting for the Early Bronze Age (AMEBA) on October 15, devoted this year to visual culture.
Our fall cohort of fellows is now in residence. Blair Heidkamp (Carol and Eric Meyers Doctoral Dissertation Fellow, University of Texas at Austin) and Prof. Benjamin Saidel (Seymour Gitin Professorial Fellow, East Carolina University) are joined this month by Prof. Lorenzo Nigro (Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professor, Sapienza University of Rome), who is working on the final publication of the Italian-Palestinian excavations at Jericho from 2009 to 2025. Together they span the full chronological range of the Albright, from the Neolithic through Jericho’s Bronze Age cities to the Ottoman and British Mandate periods.
Finally, as the holiday season draws to a close, I wish a Chag Sameach to all who celebrated Sukkot and Simchat Torah.
With warm wishes,
Jamie Fraser
Dorot Director
W. F.
Albright Institute of Archaeological Research
Upcoming Events
Fall Lecture Program: October
All lectures begin at 5pm Jerusalem time, with a reception at 6pm. Join us in person at the Albright or online via Zoom.
Download the Fall 2026 Program (PDF)
October
Alon Arad
Emek Shaveh
Antiquities, Ruins, and Destruction: International Law and Israeli Archaeology
Webinar ID: 831 1243 5085 | Passcode: 974287
Federica Broilo
Albright Institute, Annual Associate Fellow
A Taste of the Holy Land? Exploring Travel and Hospitality in Early Nineteenth Century Ottoman Palestine
Webinar ID: 883 6144 7977 | Passcode: 946167
Looking Ahead to November
Lorenzo Nigro
Albright Institute, Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professor; Sapienza University
Jericho, the Biblical Bias, and Historically Founded Archaeology
Webinar ID: 870 1461 0106 | Passcode: 600525
Blair Heidkamp
Albright Institute, Carol and Eric Meyers Doctoral Dissertation Fellow; University of Texas at Austin
Hunting at the Edge: The Role of Kites and Projectile Points at the Close of the Neolithic
Webinar ID: 874 4200 7780 | Passcode: 477782
AMEBA 2026: Visual Culture in the Early Bronze Age Levant
Thursday, October 15, 8:45am to 5pm
W. F. Albright Institute, 26 Salah ed-Din Street
The Albright is proud to host this year’s Annual Meeting for the Early Bronze Age. The day brings together researchers working across the southern Levant to explore imagery, iconography and the visual world of the third millennium BCE.
Attendance is free, but registration is required.
News to Celebrate
At the Crossroads of Cultures: A New Award for Sepphoris (Zippori)
We are delighted to announce that the Albright has received a $130,000 Federal Assistance Award from the U.S. Department of State through the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem for “At the Crossroads of Cultures: The Sepphoris Interpretive Signage Project.”
Sepphoris, near Nazareth, is a jewel of the Galilee. Home to Jewish, polytheist and later Christian communities living side by side, it is associated with the redaction of the Mishnah and identified as the birthplace of Mary. Yet despite decades of American and Israeli excavation, visitors find its streets, synagogues, churches and mosaics largely unexplained.
Over the next year, the project will install a trilingual signage system across the park, with around ten large panels and QR-linked audio and visual content at some thirty locations. Accessible design features, including tactile illustrations, will welcome visitors of all ages and abilities, and a small display will tell the story of nearly a century of American and Israeli archaeology at Sepphoris.
The project is led by recent NEH Fellow Dr. Shulamit Miller (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) in partnership with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, with advisory support from Prof. Zeev Weiss (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Prof. Eric Meyers (Duke University), whose excavations transformed our understanding of the site. Work has already begun, and we will share our progress in future newsletters.
ECA Fellowships Return for 2027–2028
We are delighted to share that the Albright’s ECA Fellowships, funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), have been reinstated, thanks to the tireless advocacy of our friends at CAORC.
We are very pleased to welcome these awards back into our portfolio of fellowships. Our 2027–2028 round will include four ECA Fellowships, one ECA Professorial Fellowship and three ECA Junior Fellowships. The junior awards are reserved for PhD candidates and recent graduates within five years of completing their dissertation, supporting early-career scholars at a critical stage of their careers. All four are being advertised now alongside our other fellowships, with applications due in December.
Fellowships
2027–2028 Fellowship Applications Now Open
Applications for the Albright’s 2027–2028 fellowships are open! The Albright offers ten awards for doctoral students, recent PhDs and senior scholars of all nationalities.
Applications close on December 6. You can download a one-page flier about the awards here. Please help the Albright by sharing it widely with your colleagues and students, and by posting it on your university noticeboards.
Progress Updates on Our Grants
Project Manager Shua Kisilevitz continues to make strides on our two-year, $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of State through ECA’s Cultural Heritage Center and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
Galilee Heritage Project
For the first time in more than 1,400 years, the synagogue and the mosaics discovered by Prof. Jodi Magness and the Huqoq Excavation Project were fully exposed and visible together. It was quite a sight!
Before the mosaics were covered again for their protection, we worked with the IAA to document the entire synagogue through drone photography, laser scanning, and detailed photography of the mosaic panels. This record will help us develop a digital reconstruction of the synagogue and share new views of it in the future. New signage was created and installed around the site.
The Albright Family Archive
Project Conservator Alejandra Sanchez continues to conserve, transcribe and digitize the Albright Family Archive. This month’s featured item is a remarkable photograph from October 1934, which offers an extraordinary glimpse of leading archaeologists gathered at Alan Rowe’s British-sponsored excavation at Gezer.
“Archaeological Minds at Gezer, 1934,” front and back. © Albright Family Archive.
Handwriting on the back identifies the group. William F. Albright, then director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, is stooping at the center, alongside Dr. Carl Kraeling (with pipe), Dr. William F. Stinespring (sitting), Mrs. Stinespring (at the rear) and excavator Alan Rowe (bare-headed).
More than an excavation photograph, it captures scholars from different institutions and traditions coming together at a formative moment in the archaeology of the southern Levant. Albright’s presence is particularly noteworthy. He had just closed his own excavation campaign at Bethel in September, making this photograph a fascinating record of the archaeological community at work that same season. We thank Norma Franklin and Jeff Blakely for their help identifying people and places in this extraordinary collection.
Albright Live
All our lectures are recorded and shared on our Albright Live YouTube channel. Missed the opening lecture of our fall season? Dorot Director Jamie Fraser’s talk, “The Site That Broke the Ceramic Clock: Radiocarbon Dating, Pottery, and Rewriting the Early Bronze Age ‘Collapse’ in Jordan,” is now available to watch on our YouTube channel. The lecture explores new radiocarbon results from Khirbet Ghozlan in northern Jordan and what they mean for our understanding of the end of the Early Bronze Age.
Find more past lectures on Albright Live.
News from the Library
Recent Additions to the Albright Library
Have you published your research recently? The Albright Library would love to receive a copy! To discuss a donation, please contact Head Librarian Ruba Shweiki (ruba@aiar.org). We are grateful for three generous donations in September.
Hagia Polis Project: Excavations at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Vol. 1, Project and Methodology. The first volume of a new series presenting excavations in the Holy Sepulchre. Donated by Albright Fellow Luca Brancazi, who contributed two chapters, including “Faunal Remains from the Holy Sepulchre: Archaeological Perspectives on Historical Practices.”
Magica Levantina (Mag. Lev.). A scholarly edition of magical texts from the Levant, with translations and notes. Donated and inscribed by Alexander Hollmann, NEH–Albright Fellow in 2016.
Archaeology in the Holy Land: 125 Years of Research by the DEI. A history of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in the Holy Land and its work at Tall Zirāʿa, Jerusalem and Tiberias. Donated and inscribed by Dieter Vieweger, following his lecture at the Albright in September.
Staff News
Staff Field Trip to the Galilee
Albright staff and fellows took a day trip in early September to visit the Albright’s work on the Galilee Heritage Project. Project Manager Shua Kisilevitz shared the work at Huqoq firsthand, with an introduction by IAA archaeologist Waseem Hamdan. They then enjoyed a cruise on the Sea of Galilee, visited the Secrets of Huqoq exhibition and the ancient boat at the Yigal Alon Center, and shared lunch by the river at Yardenit. It was a welcome chance to see the Albright’s work in the field, spend time together, and share laughs.
Staff Spotlight
Each month we spotlight a member of the Albright team. This month, meet Yuli Gekht, our Assistant Director and the mastermind behind this fall’s lecture program.
Yuli Gekht
Assistant Director, Albright Institute
Born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuli moved to Israel with her family at the age of nine and grew up in Rishon LeZion. In 2005 she came to Jerusalem to study archaeology, fell in love with the city, and never left.
Before archaeology, Yuli worked in high tech, and she still brings that background to her work today. Yuli has worked on numerous excavation and publication projects over the years, including at Tel Dor, Wadi Hamam, Tiberias, Tel Esur and Tel Shikmona.
Outside of work, Yuli enjoys live music, building up her record collection, and planning an off-the-grid hike across Scotland. At the moment she is fostering a kitten found abandoned in the Albright’s courtyard. She would love to hear from anyone interested in adopting! Yuli can be contacted at yuli@aiar.org.
Support the Albright
The Omar and Hisham Jibreen Kitchen Campaign
Two names, one kitchen, eight decades of service. We’re honoring the extraordinary legacy of Omar and Hisham Jibreen, uncle and nephew, whose combined dedication shaped the Albright’s kitchen and table for generations, by naming the kitchen in their memory. With Hisham’s son Daoud now carrying the tradition into a third generation, this campaign is both a tribute and a continuation. To learn more about their legacy, view some photos, and to support the campaign, use the link below.
Centennial Paving Stone
Leave your name, or honor someone else’s, on the Albright’s campus for generations to come. For $250, you can purchase a named paving stone, placed along our pathway of supporters on the Institute’s grounds. It’s a small gesture with lasting presence: every stone tells a story of someone who helped carry the Albright into its next century. All donations are tax-deductible in the US.
Get Involved at the Albright
Interested in a larger gift, a named fellowship or staff position, a campus naming opportunity, or a legacy gift to secure the Albright’s future? We’d love to talk. Reach out directly to Dorot Director Jamie Fraser (jamesfraser@aiar.org) or Director of Philanthropy Laura Rheintgen (laurar@aiar.org) to discuss what’s possible.
General Donations
You can make a difference. Every gift, large or small, helps sustain the Albright’s mission in Jerusalem.