Books & Courses

As an active field archaeologist and scholar, I have published 13 books and dozens of articles in journals and edited volumes (for a full list see my cv). My most recent books are:

Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (New York: Oxford University, March 2024).

Ancient Synagogues in Palestine: A Reevaluation Nearly a Century After Sukenik’s Schweich Lectures.  The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy 2022 (London: The British Academy/Oxford University Press, June 2024).

Three of my books have won awards:

Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth (Princeton: Princeton University, 2019) was selected as a finalist for the 2019 National Jewish Book Award in the category of History, the Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award.

The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002; revised edition 2021) won the 2003 Biblical Archaeology Society’s Award for Best Popular Book in Archaeology in 2001-2002 and was selected as an “Outstanding Academic Book for 2003” by Choice Magazine.

The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003) was awarded the 2006 Irene Levi-Sala Book Prize in the category of non-fiction on the archaeology of Israel.

My research has been supported by fellowships from the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Fulbright Israel; the American Council of Learned Societies; Dumbarton Oaks; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton; the W. F. Albright Institute in Jerusalem; and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 2008, I received the Archaeological Institute of America’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. I have produced two Great Courses: “The Holy Land Revealed” and “Jesus and His Jewish Influences.”