Biblical and Levantine Studies

Ongoing Research Projects

A number of projects related to the archaeology of the Levant are currently in progress at UCLA under the direction of Aaron Burke and William Schniedewind. These present unique funding and research opportunities for NELC graduate students at UCLA in the fields of Levantine Archaeology and Biblical Studies.

Visualization of the Archaeology of the Levant (VAL)

William Schniedewind and Aaron Burke, Directors

 

2006 inaugurated the Visualization of the Archaeology of the Levant project at UCLA. This initiative will use the resources of UCLA’s virtual reality modeling labs and cooperation with other campus units such as Academic Technology Services and the Urban Simulations Team to undertake the creation of a number of virtual models of archaeological sites throughout the Levant.

 

The first project is a visualization of the settlement at Qumran (ca. 175 BCE to 74 CE). Robert Cargill, a graduate student in NELC, has taken the lead in modeling this settlement and he is employing the results of the project towards his dissertation research. The project was largely funded by the San Diego Museum of Natural History in anticipation of the debut of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit from June through December of 2007.

 

Plans for other modeling projects include Ugarit (Ras Shamra), Lachish, and Hazor. In the fall of 2007 work began on a model of Late Bronze Age Ugarit in conjunction with winter seminars offered in the NELC department by Drs. Schniedewind (Ugaritic) and Burke (The Archaeology of Late Bronze Age Ugarit).

Encyclopedia of Archaeological Research in the Levant (EARL)

Aaron A. Burke, Director

J. David Schloen (University of Chicago), Assoc. Director

EARL will provide the first all-in-one online gazetteer-encyclopedia of archaeological excavations in the Levant. Faculty, graduate students, and volunteers will structure the OCHRE database that will host the data, bibliography, and geospatial information available for archaeological excavations and surveys in the Levant. The purpose of the project is to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date, online encyclopedia of archaeological research projects including bibliography and geospatial data. Although the project will be a continual work-in-progress, all data will be immediately available for public access as it is entered. Eventually individual project directors will be invited to maintain data for their own projects in EARL.

The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project

Aaron A. Burke, Co-Director (UCLA)

William Schniedewind, Associate Director (UCLA)

The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (JCHP) is an interdisciplinary cultural heritage project that addresses the history and archaeology of Jaffa. The project was initiated in January 2007 by its co-directors, Martin Peilstöcker (Israel Antiquities Authority) and Aaron A. Burke (University of California, Los Angeles). It is a collaborative effort between a number of participating institutions including its senior partners, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, and other partners including Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz, Germany, and The Old Jaffa Development Company.

For more information on these projects or for volunteer and research opportunities related to them, please contact Aaron Burke or William Schniedewind.

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