Beth Alpert Nakhai

Degrees

  • Ph.D., The University of Arizona
  • M.A., The University of Arizona
  • M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School
  • B.A., Connecticut College

Research Interests

Archaeology of Western Asia; Women in antiquity; Women working in Near Eastern archaeology; Biblical studies and biblical Hebrew; Religion in Canaan and Israel; Israel in the Iron Age; Israelite ethnogenesis; Household religion

Publications (book author)

2001   Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel. Atlanta: American Schools of Oriental Research.

Publications (book editor)

2014    Co-editor. Celebrate Her for the Fruit of Her Hands: Studies in Honor of Carol L. Meyers, with S. Ackerman and C. Carter. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

2014    Co-editor. Household Religion: Toward a Synthesis of Old Testament Studies, Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Cultural Studies; Proceedings of the International Conference at Westfälisches Wilhelms-Universität Münster, April 1st-3rd, 2009, with R. Albertz, R. Schmitt and S. Olyan. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

2013    Area editor. Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology. Editor in-chief D. Master. New York: Oxford University Press.

2008    The World of Women in the Ancient and Classical Near East. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

2003    The Near East in the Southwest: Essays in Honor of William G. Dever. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 58. Atlanta: American Schools of Oriental Research.

Publications (articles)

2014    Plaque and Recumbent Figurines of the Late Bronze II. Pp. 327-56 in Celebrate Her for the Fruit of Her Hands: Studies in Honor of Carol L. Meyers, eds. S. Ackerman, C. Carter and B. Alpert Nakhai. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

2014    The Household as Sacred Space. Pp. 53-71 in Household Religion: Toward a Synthesis of Old Testament Studies, Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Cultural Studies; Proceedings of the International Conference at Westfälisches Wilhelms- Universität Münster, April 1st-3rd, 2009, eds. R. Albertz, R. Schmitt, B. Alpert Nakhai and S. Olyan. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

2014    Mother-and-Child Figurines in the Late Bronze – Persian Period Levant. Pp. 165- 98 in Material Culture Matters: Essays on the Archaeology of the Southern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin, eds. J. Spencer, R. Mullins and A. Brody. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. 

2014    Divided Monarchy.  Society of Biblical Literature’s “Bible Odyssey” (website).

2011    Varieties of Religious Expression in the Domestic Setting. Pp. 347-60 in Household Archaeology in Ancient Israel and Beyond, eds. A. Yasur-Landau, J. R. Ebeling and L. B. Mazow. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 50. Leiden: Brill.

2008    Female Infanticide in Iron II Israel and Judah. Pp. 245-60 in Sacred History, Sacred Literature: Essays on Ancient Israel, the Bible and Religion in Honor of R. E. Friedman on His 60th Birthday, ed. S. Dolansky.  Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

2008    Contextualizing Village Life in the Iron Age I. Pp. 121-37 in Israel in Transition: From Late Bronze II to Iron IIa (c. 1250-850 BCE). Volume 1: The Archaeology, ed. L. L. Grabbe. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 491; European Seminar in Historical Methodology 7. London: Continuum.

2007    Gender and Archaeology in Israelite Religion. Compass Religion 1/5: 512-28.

2005    Daily Life in the Ancient Near East: New Thoughts on an Old Topic. Religious Studies Review: A Quarterly Review of Publications in the Field of Religion and Related Disciplines 31/3-4: 147-53.

2003    Israel on the Horizon: The Galilee in the Iron I. Pp. 131-51 in The Near East in the Southwest: Essays in Honor of William G. Dever, ed. B. Alpert Nakhai. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 58. Atlanta: ASOR.

1999     A Landscape Comes to Life: The Iron I Period. Near Eastern Archaeology 62/2: 62-92, 101-27, with E. Bloch-Smith.

1993    Tell el‑Wawiyat. Pp. 1500-1 in The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, vol. 4, ed. E. Stern. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, with J. P. Dessel and B. L. Wisthoff.

Publications (in press)

Ways of Believing: Religious Practice in Iron Age Israel. In Defining the Sacred: Approaches to the Archaeology of Religion in the Near East, ed. N. Laneri. Oxford, UK: Oxbow Books.

Survey

Survey On Field Safety: Middle East, North Africa, and Mediterranean Basin

Blog posts (ASOR BLOG @ asorblog.org)

Breaking In: Women’s Representation in Archaeology (Valerie Schlegel, 1st author; 3/21/14)

Women on ASOR’s Board of Trustees (3/20/14)

The Status of Women in ASOR (7/9/12)

Symposium organizer and exhibition curator

Torah Restoration Project: Daylong Workshop with Rabbi Menachem Salazar on the Judaic Studies Torah Scroll. 2/4/14

Interview on KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated (4/8/14) Link

Writings Out of Time: The University of Arizona’s Cuneiform Collection. Archaeological exhibit on display in Special Collections Library, The University of Arizona. Fall semester 2009 Link

The Roots of Literacy in the Ancient Near East. Lecture series, held in conjunction with Writings Out of Time: The University of Arizona’s Cuneiform Collection. Fall semester 2009

Interview on KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated 10/29/09 Link 1 and Link 2