The Boulder JCC is proud to present three talks this spring by Jerusalem-based archaeologist David Ilan. David is currently on sabbatical for the year as a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Origins at the University of Colorado, Boulder. 

llan is the director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. He has excavated at Tel Arad, Tel Megiddo, and Tel Dan. He teaches at Hebrew Union College and has taught at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, and Johns Hopkins University. 

Advance registration is always recommended at www.boulderjcc.org or call 303-998-1900 to register over the phone.

“The Origins of the Hebrew Alphabet (and Greek and Latin too)”
January 30 | 12:00 pm

The alphabet is one of the ancient Levant’s greatest contributions to civilization. Why was it invented? How did it develop (probably from Egyptian hieroglyphics)? Learn to decode the paleo-Hebrew letters and examine more developed examples of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions.

“The Archaeology of the Exodus”
April 2 | 7:00 pm

Passover is the commemoration of the Hebrews flight from Egypt and journey to peoplehood in the desert. The biblical account of the Exodus in the Sinai desert is quite extraordinary. For almost 200 years, explorers and archaeologists have looked for evidence of the Exodus, but have come up empty-handed. Why? Did the Exodus ever happen?

“The Politics of Archaeology in Israel”
May 11 | 7:00 pm

Most archaeologists working in Israel try to avoid politics; they will claim that what they do is apolitical—strictly academic. But is this so? Ilan will review how archaeology is budgeted and projects are determined by governments and universities. We will look at the priorities of different stakeholders and the ways in which archaeology is used to forward political and cultural narratives.