Nahman Avigad, 1950

Nahman Avigad, 1950

Nahman Avigad participated in the excavation of the synagogue of Beth Alpha begun in 1929 and in the excavation of the Hammat-Gader synagogue begun in 1932, both under the general direction of the late E. L. Sukenik. In 1953 Avigad assumed direction of the excavations of the necropolis of Beth Shearim, the famous site where Judah-han-Nasî’, or the Patriarch, resided, and where there are elaborate catacombs, not a few containing the burials of illustrious rabbis or Jewish notables. He continued in this endeavor for four seasons (1953–1955, 1958) and published his exemplary report on the catacombs and their inscriptions in 1971 (Beth Shearim III- The Catacombs 12–23). He participated in the 1955 survey of the site of Masada, and in the two expeditions to the caves in the great wadis of the Judean Desert, in 1960 and 1961.

Read the rest of Nahman Avigad: In Memoriam in the online Biblical Archaeology Society Library.