Yigael Yadin. By Boris Carmi /Meitar Collection / National Library of Israel / The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112788286

On July 22, 1982, BAR editor Hershel Shanks visited Yigael Yadin in his home in Jerusalem. Shanks spoke for several hours with Yadin, who had recently returned to full time archaeology after one of the many discursions that have marked his amazing life. Yadin has had a number of careers—soldier, scholar and politician among them. In 1948, he commanded the Haganah, Israel’s pre-state army, in that country’s War of Independence. Most recently, he served for four years as Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister. Before and since, he has lived a life of the mind as an archaeologist, Biblical scholar and historian. But he also gets his hands dirty as a field archaeologist, having led a number of important expeditions—including one to Masada, Herod’s wilderness palace—fortress where Jewish fighters made their last stand in the First Revolt against Rome, and another to Hazor, a site Yadin believes was captured by Joshua. Yadin also figured prominently in the acquisition by Israel of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He has recently published a three-volume edition of the Temple Scroll, the latest to be found and the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls. (A BAR article by Yadin on the Temple Scroll is scheduled for a future issue.) Yadin often writes for BAR; his most recent contribution was “Is the Biblical Account of the Israelite Conquest of Canaan Historically Reliable?” BAR 08-02.

Read the rest of BAR Interviews Yigael Yadin in the online Biblical Archaeology Society Library.