Dan Bahat (; born 1938 in

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

in Poland) is an Israeli archaeologist especially known for his excavations in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, particularly at the Western Wall tunnels.

Biography

Dan Bahat was born in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

to Polish Jewish parents who were

citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

.Dan Bahat: Curriculum vitae
Bar-Ilan University The family moved to

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

in 1939 and became Israeli citizens in 1952. He served in the IDF from 1956 to 1958. In 1964 he gained a

Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in archaeology and Jewish history at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. He finished his master's degree in 1978. In 1990 he obtained the

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree from the Hebrew University on the topic "Topography and Toponymy of Crusader Jerusalem" under the supervision of

Joshua Prawer Joshua Prawer (; November 22, 1917 – April 30, 1990) was a notable Israelis, Israeli historian and a scholar of the Crusades and Kingdom of Jerusalem. His work often attempted to portray Crusader society as a forerunner to later European Colon ...

Academic and archaeology career

Between 1963 and 1990 Bahat was employed by the Israel Government's Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture and Education, including as the District Archeologist of Jerusalem. He taught until 2004 at

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

, Israel, and he is currently teaching at St. Michael College, University of Toronto, Canada.

Archaeological projects

Western Wall Tunnels

Bahat was the head of archaeological research at the Western Wall tunnels between 1986–2007. In January 1992, Dan Bahat published the IAA's archaeological finding of the Western Stone, the largest

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone found to date in Israel, at ca. 10–12 metres above the base of the

Temple Mount The Temple Mount (), also known as the Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a ...

's Western Wall. The stone measures in length, presumably in depth, in height, and is estimated at weighing ca. 517

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

(570 short tons), the world's third largest block of stone used in building.Orlando Sentinel: ''Wailing Wall Includes One Of World's Biggest Blocks''
/ref>

Tel Yavne: Ibelin Castle

Bahat led the two-season dig at Tel Yavne, unearthing remains of the Crusader

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

of the Ibelin family.

Published works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahat, Dan 1938 births Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Israeli archaeologists Living people Polish emigrants to Mandatory Palestine