Assaf Kleiman is a senior lecturer at the Department of Bible, Archaeology, and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is specialized in the archaeology and history of the Levant in the pre-Classical periods, specifically in the settlement history, material culture, and inter-regional contacts of the Iron Age communities of the Sea of Galilee.

Gilad Itach is a Senior Archaeologist in the Central District of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He received his PhD in 2019 from Bar-Ilan University and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship as a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Levant, with particular emphasis on the impact of the Neo-Assyrian Empire on the region.

Angelika Berlejung is a professor for History and History of Religion of Israel and Its Neighbors at Leipzig University. She is also the co-director of the Minerva Center for Research on Israel and Aram in Biblical Times (with Prof. Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University) and since 2017, a member of the Saxonian Academy of Science.

Juliane Stein studied Classical Archaeology and Prehistory at Leipzig University in Germany. She developed her research focus on the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Levant while spending part of her studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and participating in several excavation projects in Israel (e.g., Megiddo, Tell Keisan, Ashdod-Yam, and Qubur el-Walaydah). She is also a research and teaching assistant at the Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Leipzig University.

Omer Peleg is a PhD candidate at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His research focuses on the northern Negev during the Persian period, with particular interest in imperial frontier dynamics, settlement patterns, and material culture. He has taken part in excavations at Tel Azekah and Tel Afula, and contributed to the research and publication of archaeological findings from the Horvat Tevet excavation.

Roi Harel studies Near Eastern Archaeology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev with a specialization in the Persian period. His thesis examines Persian-period pits in the Galilee and the surrounding regions. He is also serves as a research assistant at the Tell el-Badawiya/Hannathon Archaeological Project labratory.

Felix Hagemeyer is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Faculty of Theology, Leipzig University, Research Unit for History and History of Religions of Ancient Israel and its Environment. He completed his Ph.D. on the economic, cultural, religious, and social interactions between the Kingdom of Judah and the southern Coastal Plain of Israel/Palestine in October 2022. Prior to the Tell el-Badawiya/Hannathon Project, he participated in the excavations at Ashdod-Yam and Tel Azekah.

Alumni

Laura Gonnermann is research assistant at the Faculty of Theology, Leipzig University. In her dissertation she examines inscriptions on Egyptian amulets from the southern Levant and their relations to the religious history of the southern Levant and the Hebrew Bible. Her research focus lies on the Egypt-Levant interconnections during the first millennium BCE as well as theories of cultural history and language. During the last years she participated in the excavation of Ashdod-Yam.

Ron Beeri is a senior researcher at the Research Division of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He dealt intensively with the archaeology of the Akko Plain in the second millennium BCE, excavated numerous sites in Israel and has wide array of interests, mostly the Middle and Late Bronze Ages in the Levant and beyond.