History and Archeology
  • History and Archeology

History and Archeology

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  • Shelley Wachsmann, Coordinator of the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University

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    ​Topics
    - The Galilee Boat
    - Archaeological finds in Israel

    Bio

    Shelley Wachsmann was born in Canada and immigrated to Israel in 1968. He earned all three of his degrees in Near Eastern Archaeology from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology: BA (1974), MA (1984) and Ph.D. (1990).
     
    From 1976 to 1989, Wachsmann served as the Inspector of Underwater Antiquities for the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums. During that time he was directly responsible for the nautical heritage of Israel. He carried out numerous underwater archaeological surveys and excavations in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Sea of Galilee. Among the projects he directed were the excavation of a Late Bronze Age cargo off the Carmel coast, probe excavations of a late fifth century BC wreck near Kibbutz Maagan Michael, a sixth century AD Byzantine wreck off Dor and the search for cannon jettisoned by Napoleon during his retreat from Acco in 1799.
     
    In 1986 he directed the excavation of the Sea of Galilee Boat, a 2,000-year-old boat found in the Sea of Galilee near the ancient site of Migdal. At the completion of the excavation the boat was moved intact to a conservation pool at the Yigal Allon Museum at nearby Kibbutz Ginosar where it is now on exhibit.
     
    Beginning in 1990, Wachsmann became Meadows Visiting Assistant Professor of Biblical Archeology in the Nautical Archaeology Program, Texas A&M University. In 1993 this Chair was converted to a tenure-track position for which Wachsmann was appointed and in 1999 he received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. Since 2009 he has served as the Coordinator of the Nautical Archaeology Program.
     
    In 2008, he became an Adjunct Scientist of the Institute for Exploration (IFE), and in 2011 an Academic Trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA).
     
    Wachsmann has carried out extensive fieldwork in the eastern Mediterranean. Most recently, in 2002, he directed a paleo-environmental study of three possible Phoenician anchorages in Portugal. In 2003-2006, he directed the Canadian team of a joint Canadian-Greek expedition in search of fleets lost during the Persian War in the early 5th century B.C.) and in 2007-2009 he led the Danaos Project, a deep-water survey studying the Crete-to-Egypt trade route in antiquity.
     
     
    To arrange for a presentation to your organization, please contact Karen Naumann at press@houston.mfa.gov.il.
     
  • Mohammed Wattad, visiting Israeli professor in the University of California at Irvine.

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    Topics​

    • History of Israel
    • Constitutional legal system of the state of Israel
    • International criminal law
    • Self-image and identity in multicultural societies
    • ​Societal challenges confronting the Middle East

     

    Bio

    Mohammed Wattad is 2014-2014 Schusterman visiting Israeli professor in the University of California at Irvine. He is a legal scholar, specializing in international and comparative criminal law, comparative constitutional law, international law and legal issues surrounding war, torture and terrorism.

     

    Prof. Wattad is a graduate of Haifa University School of Law, including studies as an exchange student at Oxford University. He studied towards the LLD degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but then accomplished his Maters of Law degree at Columbia University, where he earned as well his doctoral studies (JSD), as a Fulbright Scholar.  Prof. Wattad completed post doctorate work as a Halbert Fellow of the Munk Center at the University of Toronto, where he was also a visiting scholar at the Faculty of Law, and a Minerva Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

     

    He is currently an assistant professor at Zefat College’s School of Law and an adjunct lecturer at the Law Faculty in Tel-Aviv University in Israel. In addition, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal 'Medicine and Law'.

     

    Prof. Wattad has expertise in the history of Israel and issues of self-image and identity in multi-cultural societies, as well as in the constitutional legal system of the state of Israel and in international criminal law. He has written and spoken extensively on societal challenges confronting the Middle East and Israel, including relations between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens and Israel’s external relations with surrounding Arab states. 

     

    From 2003-2004, Prof. Wattad served as a legal clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel under the supervision of Justice Dalia Dorner.​ 


    To arrange for a presentation to your organization, please contact Karen Naumann at press@houston.mfa.gov.il.