Meet The Team
Dr. Uri Davidovich
Lab head
Uri Davidovich (Ph.D., 2015, The Hebrew University) is a lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main research interests revolve around landscape and regional archaeology, focusing on the development of complex societies in the southern Levant during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, and on the human exploitation patterns of marginal landscapes, including caves, cliffs and deserts.
Dr. Ido Wachtel
Leading researcher
Ido Wachtel (Ph.D. in Archaeology, 2018, The Hebrew University) is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He studies ancient and sub-contemporary settlement patterns in the southern Levant and northern China using high-resolution archaeological surveys and advanced statistical modeling. He serves as a co-director of the Tel Qedesh Expedition, excavating at Qedesh in the Galilee since 2016.
Micka Ullman
leading cave researcher
Micka is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her main research interests are prehistory, speleology, and human-environment interactions. Her doctoral dissertation is titled “Human activity patterns in complex karstic caves during the late prehistory of the Levant”.
Itay Lubel
Lab Coordinator
Itay is an M.A. student at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main research interests include Human-Environment relations in arid environments, spatial archaeology, modeling nomadic movement, and the archaeology of the levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages. His M.A. thesis focuses on Human-Environment relations in the Negev desert highlands during the Iron Age IIa.
Or Fenigstein-Calamaro
Lab Coordinator
Or is an M.A. student at the Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her main research interests include spatial archaeology, GIS applications in archaeology and the archaeology of the Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Her M.A. thesis is devoted to the development of ancient road systems in the Judean Desert.
Yuval Derfner
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B.A. Student
Avraham Mashiach
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Avraham (Avi) is a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His main research interests include archaeology and history of the Levant and adjacent regions during the Iron Age and Persian Period, with an emphasis on intercultural contacts and imperial relations. His M.A. thesis waas devoted to a reanalysis of the oasis of En Gedi during the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. His Ph.D. research concerns the desert and fringe regions of the Palestine during the mid-first millennium BCE.