Research project 2024-2027 in the "Lost Cities" funding programme of the Gerda Henkel Foundation

Project team

Project leader:

• Prof. Dr Benedikt Hensel - Chair of Hebrew Bible - University of Oldenburg/Germany

Project partner:

• Dr Erik Eynikel - Faculty of Catholic Theology - University of Regensburg/Germany
• Dr Igor Kreimerman - Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Israel

Project coordinator - Project office

Two Postdoc Positions:

1. Sub-Project: "Archaeology of Hazor": Dr Nitsan Shalom (University of Oldenburg)
2. Sub-Project "The Hebrew bible, memories in the making and the origins of Israel" (University of Oldenburg)

The Task of the Project

Within this recent and crucial discussion, the "Resettlement of Ruins and Memories in the Making"-project strives to understand the resettlement processes of the lost city of Hazor in their interaction with the memory shaping and identity construction of the early origins of Israel and in its significant literary traditions, which later become the Hebrew Bible. This task will be met

1. through the lens of the megapolis of Hazor, whose complex settlement history of de- and re-urbanisation as one of the largest former megacities of the Southern Levant in antiquity covers the entire period targeted in this project.
2. by bringing these detailed observations into a general and much needed overall picture of cultural and ethnic continuities, discontinuities, and LBA/Iron I-II transitions in the Southern Levant.

This task can only be met through the unique multidisciplinary approach chosen for this project, which will combine the perspectives from the disciplines of archaeology, social/cultural history, anthropology, and Hebrew Bible studies. The project has two primary objectives, leading to the two areas of research described in the following section:

1. "Resettlement of Ruins and Remembering the Past" (Archaeology; Nitsan Shalom): Hazor presents a unique case of acknowledgement, treatment and manipulation of Bronze Age remains during the Iron Age. The project plans on advancing the identification of more cases of this kind through new excavations. Did the new settlers have prior knowledge of the destroyed buildings? Did they choose specific spaces to rebuild/leave in ruins? What can be said about the (cultural or ethnic) identity of these new settlers in Hazor?
2. "Memories in the Making and the Origins of Israel" (Hebrew Bible Studies and Cultural History; Kishiya Hidaka): The project pursues the task of a historical, literary-historical, and cultural historical reconstruction of the imagination of Hazor and the Canaanites within the biblical traditions and how these memories are linked to the transitional processes of the origins of Israel, or rather the "memories of Israel" as an early tribal culture.

Each area of research will by necessity be accompanied by the archaeological excavations at Hazor where the PI and the research team are involved.

"Hazor Digital": Hazor Season 2025

As part of the resettlement project, the Oldenburg team led by Benedikt Hensel is currently developing digital recording and evaluation methods in order to drive forward the digital transformation processes that will enable the indexing, recording, digitisation, storage, organisation and evaluation of aspects of the materiality of excavations, objects and written material through the so-called digital revolution. From 2025, these methods will be trialled on site as part of the Oldenburg "Hazor Digital" project. This includes state-of-the-art surveying techniques, 3D digitisation and visualisation (multi-spectral), geovisualisation, spatial AI and AI-assisted analysis methods. Jade University's specialists from the Institute of Applied Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics(IAPG) are also taking part. The aim is to precisely analyse the transitions from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in Hazor as well as settlement continuities and demolitions using digital methods.

The excavations as part of Season 2025 will take place from 3-22 August 2025. We cordially invite you to an information evening on 19 December, 18:30 in the "Villa Geistreich", Oldenburg or digitally via: meeting.uol.de/rooms/qub-zix-bor-ezt/join.

Publications

1. Hensel, Benedikt/Kreimerman, Igor, "New Excavations in the Megapolis Hazor: Descending into the Settlement Layers of Ancient Israel," in: World and Environment of the Bible 1 (2024), 62-65.
2. Igor Kreimerman, Erik Eynikel, Benedikt Hensel, Bénédicte Lhoyer, Débora Sandhaus, Tel Hazor 2023: Preliminary Report, Journal of the German Palestine Association 141/1 (2025) (peer-reviewed).

Final theses / MA thesis (completed)

1. "Joshua 11, Judges 4 and Hazor: Literary Findings and Archaeological Evidence" (Lennart F. Frost, University of Oldenburg; supervisor: Benedikt Hensel)

Presentations

1. All research team members: Presentation of the project results with individual lectures by Hensel, Kreimerman, Eynikel, Hidaka, Segev and Shalom at the EABS Annual Meeting (Uppsala 2025; Research Unit: The Origins Of Israel - Hensel/Hidaka)
2. Benedikt Hensel, "From Hero to Zero? The Bronze Age/Iron I Transition at Hazor - with some remarks on biblical traditions", 7-11 September 2025. Friedrich Schiller University Jena. "Continuity and Discontinuity in the 'Fertile Crescent' during the Bronze to Iron Age Transition."
3. Benedikt Hensel, "Transitions from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age and the Question of Resettlement: Current Research Insights - The Resettlement of Ruins and Memories in the "Making" Project". Lecture at the conference of the German Palestine Association 6-8 December 2024 in Mainz.
4. Benedikt Hensel, "Of Transitions and Continuities: The resettlement of ruins in Hazor and what they might have to do with the early Israelites?". Lecture at the University of Mainz ("Freundeskreis der biblischen Archäologie"), 5 December 2024
5. Benedikt Hensel: "Quo vadis Biblical Archaeology. New perspectives using the example of the new excavations in Hazor (Israel).". Lecture at the University of Hamburg (Commemorative lecture for Prof Dr Stefan Timm on his 80th birthday). 28.06.2024.

Related Projects

1. Research project (University of Oldenburg) "Hazor Excavations Project" (Benedikt Hensel, Co-Director; with Direcot Dr. Igor Kreimerman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) (since 2023).
2. Research project (University of Oldenburg) "I will turn your cities into ruins..." (Lev 26:31): Ruins as Material Evidence and Identity Markers in Iron Age Israel/Palestine" (since 2024) (Dr Felix Hagemeyer)