2026 Burns Lectures: Archaeology of the Holy Land

Jodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As an archaeologist, she has participated in over twenty excavations in Israel and Greece. Magness has written numerous books, including Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (2024); Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth (2019); and The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2002).

Jerusalem in the time of Jesus

In this slide-illustrated lecture, we survey the history and archaeology of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus (late first century BCE to first century CE), ending with the city’s destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. We focus especially on the reign of Herod the Great, and his reconstruction of the Second Temple and Temple Mount, as well as sites associated with Jesus’s final hours in Jerusalem.

Livestream

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Other lectures in this series

• Tuesday, 5 May – What makes Jerusalem special?
• Thursday, 7 May – Ossuaries and the burials of Jesus and James
• Tuesday, 12 May – The Dead Sea Scrolls
• Wednesday, 13 May – Masada: Last stronghold of the Jewish resistance against Rome
• Thursday, 14 May – More than just mosaics: The ancient synagogue at Huqoq in Galilee