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).

What makes Jerusalem special?

Professor Magness’s new book, Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024), presents a broad yet detailed account of one of the world’s oldest, holiest, and most contested cities.

In this talk, we journey back thousands of years in time to understand how this remote and relatively poor mountain town came to be sacred to followers of the three Abrahamic faiths.

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Other lectures in this series

• Wednesday, 6 May – Jerusalem in the time of Jesus
• 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