Our Staff
Our international team includes senior scholars, PhD candidates, MA and BA students from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS). We all share our passion for archaeology and the history of the land.
Ido Koch
TAU
Co-Director
Ido is Associate Professor at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, and Co-Director of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project. He studies the archaeology of Bronze and Iron Ages Southern Levant. Co-PI of the Swiss National Science foundation/Israel Science Foundation project “Stamp Seals from the Southern Levant”, Co-PI of the White-Levy funded project “Final Publication of Aharoni’s Excavations at Tel Arad”, and co-director of the Tel Qasile Excavations. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University.
James Parker
NOBTS
Co-Director
James (Jim) Parker is the Executive Director of the Moskau Institute of Archaeology at New Orleans Seminary, occupying the MacFarland Chair of Archaeology, and co-directs the Bible and Archaeology Museum on the campus. He has been Co-Director of the Tel Gezer Ancient Water System Archaeological Expedition (2008–2018), where he partnered with Tsvika Tsuk of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Since 2018, he has been Co-Director of the Tel Hadid Expedition, where he partners with Ido Koch of Tel Aviv University. Parker has also worked on excavations at Sepphoris (Arches Reservoir) in the Galilee and Tell es-Safi (biblical Gath). Parker is also actively involved in leading Seminary-led tours to Israel so that students, ministers, and lay people alike can experience seeing the Holy Land.
All Staff (alphabetically)
Yuval Amir
TAU
Area supervisor
Yuval is a PhD candidate at TAU. His research, supervised by Prof. Ido Koch and Prof. Ze’ev Herzog, deals with the Yarkon River Basin during the Second Millennium BCE with a focus on the site of Tel Gerisa. His MA thesis, supervised by Prof. Ido Koch, dealt with the understudied phenomenon of Iron Age Zoomorphic Libation Vessels from the Southern Levant, focusing on their functional roles, symbolic significance, and unique ritualistic agency. Yuval also holds a BA degree in Art History. Born in Jerusalem, but a long-time resident of Tel Aviv, Yuval has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2019.
Stav Bartel
TAU
GIS analysis
Stav is an MA student in Archaeology at TAU, where he also holds a B.A in both Archaeology and Geography. His research utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to conduct spatial analysis, landscape studies, and archaeological mapping. Stav’s work primarily focuses on Tel Hadid and its surrounding areas during Late Antiquity and Modern times. Stav has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2022.
Ithamar Belfer
TAU
Assistant area supervisor
Ithamar is a B.A. student in the Archaeology department of TAU. Previously, he participated in the Tel Azekah expedition and the salvage excavation in Yavne, and joined the Tel Hadid Project as an assistant area supervisor in order to continue his professional training.
Ammit Etya
TAU
Area supervisor, Hellenistic- and Roman-period ceramics
Amit is a field archaeologist, ceramic specialist and a PhD candidate focusing on the Hellenistic and Roman Periods in the Beersheba-Arad Valley (Supervisors: Profs. Zeev Herzog, Oren Tal and Ido Koch). His MA thesis centered around the Hasmonean and Early Roman Periods at Tel Hadid and The Lydda Valley (Supervisor: Prof. Ido Koch). Currently living in Rishon LeZion with his family, Amit took part in the Tel Azekah Expedition and the Beit Shemesh salvage excavation and directed a salvage excavation near Tsur Hadassa (Jerusalem region). Ammit has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2019.
Savannah Fredrickson
NOBTS
Area supervisor
Savannah earned her MA in Biblical Archaeology from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2024. Her love of digging in the dirt began in 2015 when she went on her first archaeological excavation with NOBTS for the Tel Gezer Water System Expedition. After 4 seasons there, she joined NOBTS and Tel Aviv University at Tel Hadid where she works as an area supervisor. Savannah has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2019.
Sagi Freiman
TAU
Area supervisor, survey co-supervisor
Sagi recently submitted his M.A. thesis on archaeoseismology (the study of ancient earthquakes), focusing on human responses to them, under the supervision of Prof. Ido Koch and Prof. Shmulik Marco. He intends to pursue a PhD focusing on the Early Islamic period based on the excavations of Bet She’an. He has participated in the Tel Azekah Expedition, the Tel Qasile salvage excavation, and the Yavne East salvage excavation. In addition, Sagi is responsible for overseeing the archaeological survey at the Tel and has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2022.
Mor Goldenberg
TAU
Area supervisor
Mor is a PhD candidate at TAU, supervised by Prof. Ido Koch and Prof. Yuval Gadot. After completing an MSc in Biochemistry, she returned to Archaeology, focusing on “Visual Language in the Kingdom of Israel.” She is part of the Tel Hadid team and has participated in excavations at Kfar HaHoresh and Ein el-Jarba. Mor has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2022.
Blanca Montero-Phillips
NOBTS
Chief administration
Blanca serves as the Director of Providence Learning Center and Providence Travel Programs at NOBTS, overseeing logistics for biblical lands Pilgrimages. She is in the DMin Professional Doctoral Program at NOBTS.
Netanel Rinon
TAU
Area supervisor
Netanel (Nate) is an MA student at TAU, under the supervision of Prof. Ido Koch. His thesis focuses on the role of cultic vessels in the Iron Age, employing experimental archaeology and the recreation of ancient artifacts from Tel Qasile. In addition to his archaeological work, Nate practices ceramics, and is particularly interested in the intersection between archaeology and pottery-making.
Nate participated in Tel Azekah excavation, served as staff member at the Tel Qasile project, and has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2022.
Israa Shekh Yosef
TAU
Archaeological documentation
Israa is an M.A student in the Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures at TAU. She pursued this field to explore ancient environment, plant life, and cultures. In 2023, she joined the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project to further develop ideas for her M.A. research. She is a member of the archaeological documentation team, and has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2022.
Dana Shraga
TAU
Assistant area supervisor
Dana is an MA student at TAU. Currently living in Giv’atayim, Dana participated in the Tel Azekah excavation and the Yavne East salvage excavation. She is also a member of the Digital Media team of the Institute of Archaeology at TAU, and manages the Digital Media for the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project. Dana has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2024.
Omer Ze’evi-Berger
University of Bonn
Spatial archaeology supervisor, Late Islamic ceramics
Currently residing in Tel Aviv, Omer is a field archaeologist. His PhD focuses on rural landscape interactions around Jerusalem and the Shephelah during the middle and late Islamic periods. Further to this, Omer specializes in digital and landscape archaeology. Beginning in 2012, Omer took part in the archaeological excavations at Tel Beth Shemesh, Kiryath Jearim and Masada. He was an area supervisor at Tel Hadid Archaeological Project during the years 2018–2020 and currently serves as spatial archaeology supervisor and expert of Late Islamic ceramics.
Sharon Zuhovitzky
TAU
Project Operations and Data Supervisor
Sharon is a PhD candidate at TAU. Her MA thesis focused on a specific type of Chalcolithic (5th–4th millennium BCE) ceramic vessel, examined through petrography and experimental archaeology. Her current research explores ceramic technology and pyrotechnology in the Iron and Persian periods in the Southern Levant. Sharon created and manages the excavation’s data system. Sharon is the project operation and data supervisor and has been responsible for metal detecting in the field. Sharon has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2022.
Past Staff Members and Specialists
Michael Alwood
Michael completed his BA in archaeology at TAU and served as assistant area supervisor in 2019 and 2020.
Dennis Cole
NOBTS
Administration and logistics
Dennis is a Professor of Old Testament and Archaeology occupying the Mcfarland Chair of Archaeology, Chairman of the Division of Biblical Studies, Co-Director of the Michael and Sara Moskau Institute of Archaeology, NOBTS. Upon the completion of a commentary on Numbers (The Evangelical Exegetical Commentary for Logos), Dennis plans to initiate a new project, The Vineyard and the Cultus: A Study in the Socio-Cultic Implications of Bronze and Iron Age Viticulture and Vinification. Dennis has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since its inception in 2018.
Carmen Elberg
Carmen completed BA in archaeology at TAU. She served as assistant area supervisor in 2019 and 2020.
Renate Fahrni
Renate, currently living in Zurich, served as the project coordinator and editorial assistant in an interdisciplinary project between the Universities of Zurich, Bern and Tel Aviv about ancient glyptics in the Southern Levant. She completed her MA studies in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at TAU. Her research focused on Egyptian stamp-seals from the late Iron Age in Judah, Philistia and southern Phoenicia under the supervision of Prof. Deborah Sweeney and Prof. Ido Koch. Renate has served as assistant area supervisors in the years 2022 and 2023.
Elana Gerber
TAU
Assistant area supervisor
Elana is currently an MA student in Archaeology at TAU. Her research focuses on the zooarchaeological assemblage from the Givati parking lot excavations during the late Hellenistic period. She conducts her research under the supervision of Prof. Lidar Sapir Hen and Prof. Yuval Gadot. In addition, she is actively involved in the survey at Tel Hadid and has been part of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2022.
Noam Kodesh
Noam completed her BA and MA in archaeology at TAU and served as an assistant area supervisor at Tel Hadid in 2019 and 2020. She is currently working on establishing a center for experimental archaeology, where both adults and children can learn about ancient crafts from the ground up.
Lin Lawson Pruitt
NOBTS
Assistant area supervisor
Lin (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) has studied the archaeology of identity and the Middle Bronze/Old Babylonian period of the Ancient Near East. With previous field experience in the prehistoric and historic eras of the American Southwest, she has excavated in Israel at Tel Rehov, Tel Gezer (2006–2018), and Ashkelon. She has also been the conservator/registrar with the Tel Gezer projects (2013–2018). Lin has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2019.
Ruthy Lewis
Originally from San Diego, California, Ruthy completed her MA at TAU focusing on Roman- and Byzantine-period glass from Tel Hadid, retrieved from the salvage excavations in the 1990s. She has participated in a variety of excavations in Israel, including most recently as a staff member at the salvage excavations at Beit Shemesh and an Area Supervisor at Tel Hadid Archaeological Project (2019–2022). Since 2022 she has served as glass specialist in the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Gary D. Myers
NOBTS
Area supervisor
Gary earned his MA in Biblical Archaeology at NOBTS in 2018. His MA thesis, “At the Threshold of the City: The Excavation and Interpretation of the Middle Bronze Age Gate at Tel Gezer,” was developed during Gary’s work as an area supervisor with the Tel Gezer Water System Expedition (2016–2017). After seven seasons of excavation at Tel Gezer, Gary joined the Tel Hadid Expedition as an area supervisor. His areas of interest in archaeology and anthropology include: city gates/boundaries, funerary/burial customs, Middle Bronze Age culture, Iron Age culture, the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and liminal space. Gary has been a member of the Tel Hadid Archaeological Project since 2018.
Noa Ranzer
Noa received her PhD from TAU and the University of Zurich. She wrote her MA thesis on the production and function of Middle and Late Bronze Age scarabs, and her PhD dissertation was titled “The Functions of Stamp-Seals in the Southern Levant: A Systematic Examination of the Objects and their Archaeological Contexts in the Iron Age”. Her supervisors were Prof. Ido Koch and Prof. Christoph Uehlinger from the University of Zurich. Noa served as an area supervisor at Tel Hadid in 2018–2022 and participated at the expeditions of Tel Azekah, Tel Shimron, Beth-Shemesh and at ‘En Esur.
Rotem Tzadok
Rotem is studying BA in archaeology at TAU. He served as assistant area supervisors in 2022–2024.
Amy Williams
NOBTS
Assistant area supervisor
Amy is an MA student in Biblical Archaeology at NOBTS. She is also the Director of the Museum of the Bible and Archaeology in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her enthusiasm for archaeology began while excavating at Tel Gezer. Amy will return to Tel Hadid this season as an assistant area supervisor. Amy has been a member of the Tel Hadid Expedition since 2019.
Alexandra Wrathall
A graduate of Tel Aviv University, Alex is an Iron Age II ceramic specialist. Originally from Australia, she has a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Research (specializing in Ancient Near Eastern narrative and narratology) from Macquarie University, Sydney, and MA in archaeology from TAU. An area supervisor at Tel Hadid during the years 2018–2023, Alex has enjoyed working at a number of sites across the Southern Levant, including Tel Azekah, Masada, Tel Aphek, City of David/Silwan, and Naḥal Nitsana.
Eli Yannai
Eli was the scientific advisor of the Tel Hadid Expedition in its early seasons. As a former IAA senior archaeologist, Eli excavated hundreds of sites across Israel and published numerous excavation reports and articles dealing with the archaeology of the country.