The Minerva Center
for the Relations between Israel and Aram in Biblical Times
Dr. Assaf Kleiman
Leipzig University
Assaf Kleiman is a postdoctoral research fellow of the Minerva Stiftung at Leipzig University. He completed his dissertation, entitled The Archaeology of Borderlands between Israel and Aram in the Iron I–II (ca. 1150–750 BCE), in 2019 at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Israel Finkelstein and Prof. Benjamin Sass. His main research interests and scope of publications are the settlement history, material culture and inter-regional contacts of complex communities across the Iron Age Levant, specifically of those located in northeastern Israel and southern Syria. He is also engaged in several on-going archaeological projects (e.g., Megiddo, Kiriath-Jearim and Timna) and in the final publication of past digs (Tel Aphek, Tel Yafo and Tel Hadar).
Selected Publications:
2015
A Late Iron IIA Destruction Layer at Aphek in the Sharon Plain. Tel Aviv 42: 177–232.
2016
The Damascene Subjugation of the Southern Levant as a Gradual Process (ca. 842–800 BCE). In: Sergi, O., Oeming, M. and de Hulster, I., eds. In Search of Aram and Israel: Politics, Culture and Identity (Oriental Religions in Antiquity 20). Tübingen: 57–76.
2017
A North Israelite Royal Administrative System and its Impact on Late-Monarchic Judah. Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 6: 354–371.
2018
Comments on the Archaeology and History of Tell el-Far‘ah North (Biblical Tirzah) in the Iron IIA. Semitica 60: 85–104.
2019
Invisible Kingdoms? Settlement Oscillations in the Northern Jordan Valley and State Formation in Southwestern Syria. In: Berlejung, A. and Maeir, A.M., eds. Researches on Israel and Aram: Autonomy, Interdependence and Related Issues. Proceedings of the First Annual RIAB Center Conference,
2019
The Archaeology of the Days of Baasha? Revue Biblique 126: 277–296.