The Program Director
Dr. Sarah Culpepper Stroup is a professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Washington in Seattle, and serves as faculty in the programs of Comparative Religion, and Theory and Criticism. Professor Stroup earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in Classics, with specializations in literature, philosophy, and archaeology. Her research interests include Roman social and textual history and spectacle, and the material culture of Greece and Rome; her publications include works on the textual and social cultures of the Roman Republic and early Empire, and she is a contributor to the Tel Dor Excavation Reports. Her primary research interests at Dor center on our collection of Hellenistic and Roman inscribed objects. She first joined the Tel Dor excavations in 2000, and began to bring UW students to Dor in 2003; she is excited to offer the credit-granting UW Field School to the students of the UW and the broader community as a whole.

The Israeli Excavation Directors
Dr. Ilan Sharon, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is co-director of the Tel Dor Excavations and an instructor in the Field School. Professor Sharon earned his PhD in Archaeology at the Hebrew University; he has excavated several sites in Israel, has been on the staff of the Tel Dor excavations since their inception in 1980, and was senior field archaeologist of the first Dor expedition (1980 – 2000) before moving into the position as co-director of the excavations as a whole. His published articles are about archaeological methodology, the Iron Age in Israel, and Dor.

Dr. Ayelet Gilboa, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at Haifa University, is co-director of the Tel Dor Excavations and an instructor in the Field School. Professor Gilboa earned her PhD in Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and leads the group of Haifa University students who excavate at the site. Professor Gilboa has been on the staff of the Tel Dor excavations from early on, and moved into position as co-director in 2003 (with the inception of the new expedition); she is in charge of investigating the earlier periods of the site (Iron Age and prior). Her publications include articles on Iron Age ceramics and chronology, Sea People and Phoenicians, and the Mediterranean interactions in the Iron Age.

Associated Israeli Staff and IES Instructors
Avshalom Karasik received BAs in Archaeology and Mathematics from the Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva. He completed his MA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is a guest student in the Weizmann Institute of Science, where his research centers on developing computerized tools for ceramic analysis. Currently Avshalom is expanding this subject, in his PhD work, to other areas of computerized archaeological analysis. He has been an area supervisor in several rescue excavations in Israel, and has participated in excavations at Haluza, Tel el-Far’a and Tel a-Safi. Avshalom has been area supervisor of Area D4 since 2007; as such, he works daily with professor Stroup and the majority of the UW Field School participants. In the field, Avshalom teaches all students the essentials of modern archaeology; he also provides evening lectures on mathematics and archaeology, and leads afternoon “Tel Exercises” on the chronology of wall relations, and topography.

Barak Monnickendam-Givon is an alumnus of Yeshivat Har Etzion, received his BA in Archaeology and Jewish History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and recently started MA studies in Classical and Biblical Archaeology, where his research focuses on the Persian and early Hellenistic pottery of Tel Dor. Barak has been working at Dor since 2004, has participated as area recorder in 2005 and 2006, and has, since 2007, worked as our “pottery guru,” teaching students about the types and dating of the pottery we excavate in our afternoon pottery reading sessions at the museum.

Ryan Boehler holds a BA in Classics from the University of Montana, an MA in History from the University of Washington, and is currently a PhD candidate in History at the UW, working on conceptual geography in the Roman Republic. He excavated at Dor under UW auspices in 2005 and 2007; in 2008, Ryan was hired by the Hebrew University team through the Israeli Exploration Society (IES), and now serves as senior staff and Field School instructor under its aegis. Ryan is a square supervisor in D4, and offers daily in-field instruction to the Field School participants; his evening lectures center on the topics of history, ancient geography, and the “locus system” used at Dor. In Seattle, Ryan works as assistant to the project’s planning and administration.

Colin McFeron holds a BA in Anthropology, with minors in Classics and Latin, from the University of Washington. Colin excavated at Dor first in 2007; in 2008, Colin was hired on by the Hebrew University team through the IES, and now serves as senior staff and Field School instructor under its aegis. Colin is a square supervisor in D4, and offers daily in-field instruction to the Field School participants; he also leads afternoon “Tel Exercises” on the topics of stratigraphy and stratigraphic analysis.

Staff, Researchers, and Lecturers in the Field School
Rosa Maria Motta (Latin Instructor and PhD Candidate at the University of Virginia) is our site numismatist, and lectures on the coins found at Dor.

Dr. Elizabeth Bloch-Smith (Area D2 team director) lectures on the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages in Israel.

Dr. Elisabetta Boaretto (Research Associate at the Weizmann Institute of Science and Director of its Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory; Lecturer in Archaeological Science at Bar Ilan University) lectures on radiocarbon dating and microarchaeology at Dor.

Ravit Linn (Instructor at the University of Haifa) lectures, and offers afternoon tutorials, on the topic of site conservation.

Sveta Matskevich (Site Architect and Database Supervisor, PhD Candidate at the University of Haifa) offers afternoon tutorials on architectural illustration and the construction of daily top plans.

Talia Neuman-Goldman (PhD candidate at the Weizmann Institute of Science) is a supervisor in Area D5, and offers afternoon “Tel Exercises” on the topic of site plans and stratigraphy.

Lidar Sapir-Hen (PhD candidate in Zoology at Tel Aviv University) is our “bone specialist,” and offers lectures on micromorphology and the faunal remains from Tel Dor.

Yiftah Shalev (PhD Candidate in Classics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem) is a supervisor in Area D5, and offers lectures on Dor in the Persian and Hellenistic periods.

Dr. Stephen Weiner (Director of the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science; Burch Fellow at the Smithsonian Institute) lectures on the mechanisms of biomineralization and structure-mechanical function relations in biological materials and archaeological science.