22nd Annual Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize

The W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem announces the 2023 Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize call for papers. This prize provides $750 for the best paper presented at a conference which treats a topic in the field of Syro-Palestinian or Biblical Archaeology. 

Authors must be Ph.D. candidates in the semester in which the winner is announced (Spring 2022). They may be of any nationality but the paper must be in English. Co-written or co-presented pieces may be submitted if all the authors or presenters are doctoral candidates; the prize, if awarded, will be divided equally among authors or presenters. 

All submissions must be in PDF format only. Submissions must be conference papers not already published or prepared for submission to a publication. Conference papers must include images (if used in the presentation) in PDF format (either as a separate document or embedded within the text of the paper), and full citations and bibliographic references.

Submissions must be received no later than February, 1st 2023. The prize will be announced on Sean’s birthday, March 9, 2023. 

Sean W. Dever Memorial Prize Committee: Jennie Ebeling and Nathaniel Levtow, co-chairs; Liz Bloch-Smith and Seymour Gitin, members; JP Dessel and Matthew Adams, ex-officio members.

2022 Prize Recipient
MARCH 9, 2022

The 2022 winner is Bruno Biermann, a Ph.D. candidate in the Institute for Old Testament Studies at the University of Bern. His paper, “Seals from the Southern Levant and Gender Archaeology: Theoretical and Practical Considerations,” was presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Antonio, TX.

Past Recipients

2021

Avraham Yoskovich, Ph.D. candidate in the General History Department at Haifa University. His paper, “The Huqoq Mosaic: Re-considering the Biblical Interpretation,” was presented at the 11th Conference of the European Association for Jewish Studies (Krakow, 2018).

2020

Abra Spiciarich, Ph.D. candidate in the Nadler Institute of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University. Her paper, “Birds in Transition: Bird Exploitation during the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age I, and Iron Age II,” will be published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 383 (2020).

2019

Assaf Kleiman, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University. His paper, “Comments on the Archaeology and History of Tell el-Far’ah North (Biblical Tirzah) in the Iron IIA,” was published in Semitica 60 (2018): 85-104.

2018

Andrew Burlingame, Ph.D. candidate in Northwest Semitic Philology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. His paper, “Line Five of the Amman Citadel Inscription: History of Interpretation and a New Proposal” was published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 376 (2016): 63–82.

2017

Liat Naeh, Ph.D. candidate at The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Her paper, “In Search of Identity: The Contribution of Recent Finds to Our Understanding of Iron Age Ivory Objects in the Material Culture of the Southern Levant” was published in Altorientalische Forschungen, 42/1: 80–96 (2015).

2016

Shlomit Bechar, Ph.D. candidate in the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Her paper, A Reanalysis of the Black Wheel-Made Ware of the Intermediate Bronze Age, was published in Tel Aviv, 42: 26-58 (2015).

2015

Jesse Michael Millek, Ph.D candidate in the Biblical Archaeology Institute and Department of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. His paper, “Sea Peoples, Philistines, and the Destruction of Cities: A Critical Examination of Destruction Layers ‘Caused’ by the ‘Sea Peoples’” was presented in November 2014 at a conference on “The Sea Peoples Up-To-Date: New Research on the Migration of Peoples in the 12th Century BCE” in Vienna.

2014

Josephine A. Verduci, Ph.D. candidate in the Classics and Archaeology Department in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her paper, “A Feather in Your Cap: Symbols of Philistine Warrior Status” was presented in November 2013 at the Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Baltimore.

2013

Heather Dana Davis Parker, PhD candidate, Northwest Semitics and Hebrew Bible, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Johns Hopkins University; and Ashley Fiutko Arico, PhD candidate, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Their paper, “A Moabite-Inscribed Statue Fragment from Kerak: Possible Egyptian Parallels” was given at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.

2012

Robert S. Homsher, UCL Institute of Archaeology. His paper, “Mud-Bricks, Construction and the Process of Urbanization in the Middle Bronze Age Levant” was given at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

2011

Helen R. Jacobus, University of Manchester. Her paper, 4Q318: A Jewish Zodiac Calendar at Qumran was published in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Texts and Contexts, ed. C. Hempl (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah 90; Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 365-95.

2009

Jonathan S. Greer, Pennsylvania State University. His paper, “An Israelite Mizrāq at Tel Dan?” was given at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.

2008

Lucy Wadeson, Keble College, Oxford University. Her paper, “Chariots of Fire: Elijah and the Zodiac in Synagogue Floor Mosaics of Late Antique Palestine” was published in Aram, 20: 1-41 (2008).

2007

James F. Osborne, Harvard University. His paper, “The Bench Tomb in Iron Age Judah: Secondary Mortuary Practice and Social Values” was given at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

2006

Adam Kolman Marshak, Yale University, “The Dated Coins of Herod the Great: Towards a New Chronology.”

2005

John D.M. Green, Institute of Archaeology, University College London. His paper, “Anklets and the Construction of Gender and Age in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Southern Levant” was given at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

2004

Laura B. Mazow, Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Arizona. Her paper, “Competing Material Culture: Philistine Settlement at Tel Miqne-Ekron in the Early Iron Age” was given at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

2003

Christine M. Thompson, Department of Classics and Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA. Her paper, “Sealed Silver in Iron Age Cisjordan and the ‘Invention’ of Coinage” was published in Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 22/1: 67-107 (2003).

2002

Juan Manuel Tebes, School of Philosophy and Linguistics, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. His paper, “A New Analysis of the Iron Age I ‘Chiefdom’ of Tel Masos (Beersheba Valley)” was published in: XIV Jornadas de Becarios de Investigacion, Secretaria de Ciéncia y Tecnica, Universidad de Buenos Aires; Aula Orientalis.

2001

Edward Maher, University of Illinois. His paper, “Food for the Gods: The Identification of Sacrificial Faunal Assemblages in the Ancient Near East” was given at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.