Nahman Avigad

Nahman Avigad (1905-1992) was a Latvian-born Israeli archaeologist and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is best known for directing the Jewish Quarter excavations in Jerusalem's Old City from 1969 to 1982, a project that fundamentally reshaped scholarly understanding of pre-exilic and Second Temple Jerusalem.

The Jewish Quarter excavations exposed the Broad Wall, a massive 23-foot-thick fortification dated to the late 8th century BC and matched to Hezekiah's expansion of Jerusalem described in 2 Chronicles 32:5 and Isaiah 22:9-10. Avigad's team also uncovered the Burnt House, a priestly residence destroyed in the Roman siege of AD 70, and the Israelite Tower, a structure carrying clear evidence of the Babylonian destruction of 586 BC. These finds remain the primary archaeological witness to the events of 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 39 within the city itself.

Avigad was also one of the foremost Hebrew epigraphers of the twentieth century. He published extensively on Iron Age bullae (clay seal impressions) and personal seals, including identifications of officials named in Jeremiah such as Berechiah son of Neriah, the scribe of Jeremiah, and Jerahmeel the king's son. His "Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals" (with Benjamin Sass, posthumous 1997) became the standard reference for the field.

Earlier in his career Avigad worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls, co-editing the Genesis Apocryphon (1956) with Yigael Yadin. He received the Israel Prize in 1977 for his contributions to archaeology and trained a generation of Israeli excavators who carried the discipline forward.