Shemuel Yeivin (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: שמואל ייבין; September 2, 1896 – February 28, 1982), also spelled Shmuel, was an Israeli

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and the first director of the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

Early life and education

Shemuel Yeivin was born in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

, in the Jewish

Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 1917 (''de facto'' until 1915) in which permanent settlement by Jews was allowed and beyond which the creation of new Jewish settlem ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

, on 2 September 1896. His father was Nissan Yeivin, a descendant of Rabbi , from whom the family derived their surname. His mother, , went on to become a noted women's rights activist and member of the Jewish National Council and Assembly of Representatives. Following the 1905 Odessa pogrom, Esther and her children joined the

Second Aliyah The Second Aliyah () was an aliyah (Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel) that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 35,000 Jews, mostly from Russia, with some from Yemen, immigrated into Ottoman Palestine. The Sec ...

and emigrated to

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, then part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. Their father joined them in 1908, purchasing a farm in

Gedera Gedera, or less commonly known as Gdera (), is a town in the southern part of the Shfela region in the Central District of Israel founded in 1884. It is south of Rehovot. In , it had a population of . History Gedera is in the Book of C ...

. The family later 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 ...

, where Shemuel studied at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium. After graduating from Herzliya in 1914, Yeivin was drafted into the

Ottoman Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire () was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922. Army The Military of the Ottoman Empire can be divided in five main periods. The foundation era covers the years ...

to fight in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, serving as an officer until the end of the war in 1918. He earned academic degrees in Egyptology and Semitic philology and studied archaeology under Sir

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Archaeology career

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 ...

, Yeiven was an active member of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, serving as its chair between 1944 and 1946. Speaking at a meeting of the society in Tel Aviv in 1934, he celebrated archaeologists' "discovery of Hebrew Palestine" in excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim,

Tel Megiddo Tel Megiddo (from ) is the site of the ancient city of Megiddo (; ), the remains of which form a tell or archaeological mound, situated in northern Israel at the western edge of the Jezreel Valley about southeast of Haifa near the depopulate ...

, and Tel Lachish in the previous decade. Later he participated in the first ''yedi'at ha-Aretz'' ("Knowledge of the Land") conference, organised by the society 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 ...

in 1943, arguing for the expansion of regional museums to educate Jewish settlers about the antiquities of the country. He also took part in excavations at

Luxor Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt. Luxor had a population of 263,109 in 2020, with an area of approximately and is the capital of the Luxor Governorate. It is among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited c ...

(1924), Beit Shean (1924–28),

Seleucia Seleucia (; ), also known as or or Seleucia ad Tigrim, was a major Mesopotamian city, located on the west bank of the Tigris River within the present-day Baghdad Governorate in Iraq. It was founded around 305 BC by Seleucus I Nicator as th ...

(1929–37) and was the co-director, with J. Krause-Marquet, of excavations at Ai in 1933. After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Yeivin was appointed the inaugural director of its Department of Antiquities and Museums, which succeeded the Department of Antiquities of Mandatory Palestine and is now known as the

. He held the position until 1961. In 1962 he established the Department of

Ancient Near Eastern The ancient Near East was home to many cradles of civilization, spanning Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran (or Persia), Anatolia and the Armenian highlands, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. As such, the fields of ancient Near East studies and Ne ...

Studies at Tel Aviv University (later the Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology) in 1962. He was succeeded by Yohanan Aharoni in 1968. He received the Bialik Prize for Jewish Thought in 1955 and the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

in 1968.

Selected publications

* 1939, ''Toledot ha-Ketav ha-Ivri'' (The History of the Hebrew Script) * 1946, ''Milḥamot Bar Kokhva'' (The War of Bar-Kochba) * 1955, ''Kadmoniyyot Arẓenu'' (The Antiquities of Israel), co-authored with Michael Avi-Yonah

Notes

References

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External links

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Yeivin Shmuel
Rishon LeZion Family Album {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeivin, Shemuel 1896 births 1982 deaths Immigrants of the Second Aliyah Ukrainian Jews Odesa Jews Jews from Ottoman Palestine Israel Prize in Jewish studies recipients Israel Prize in Jewish studies recipients who were archaeologists 20th-century Israeli archaeologists Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium alumni Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire