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Tue, 19 Sep 2023 22:51:35 +0300

ivan zlax

zlax@ussr.win

Today, few people outside the Caucasus know that between Azerbaijan and the Armenian Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh lies the small Tartar District, through which the Tartar River flows.

Almost 120 years ago, this region was the site of the so-called Armenian-Tatar massacre, a bloody clash in Transcaucasia between Armenians and Azerbaijanis (called Transcaucasian Tatars in Russia at the time). The massacre was originally called "Armenian-Tartar" in the Western press, and it was only about 90 years ago that "Armenian-Tatar" came to be used.

In the New Testament book the Acts of the Apostles, which tells about the events that followed the Gospel events, there is a fragment, Acts 2:5-12, which lists the regions, whose representatives spoke one language understandable to each other:

5-11 There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were blown away. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene; Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; Even Cretans and Arabs! “They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!”
12 Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?”

However, in various Latin editions of the New Testament, this fragment between Mesopotamia and Cappadocia mentions Armenia instead of Judea. For example, in Erasmus of Rotterdam's EN NOVVM TESTA.

This fragment in Latin with the mention of Armenia instead of Judea in the "Acts of the Apostles" was printed many times in the past centuries, but any mention of Armenia in the Bible editions in modern languages is absent.

On the map of the French-Dutch cartographer Henri Chatelain, famous for the first mention of the toponym "Ucraine" on his maps, about 300 years ago the toponym "Tartari" was located in the place of modern Azerbaijan and Armenia, and not far from it was marked the city of "Samandar", the capital of the Khazar Kaganate, which, as it is believed today, destroyed many centuries before when this map was created.

Eran Elhaik, an Israeli-American geneticist and bioinformatician and associate professor of bioinformatics at Lund University in Sweden, stated not long ago, “The Tatars have been proposed as some of the progenitors of Ashkenazic Jews.“

To add to this, 9 years ago on the blog of The Times of Israel, Jim Wald, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for the Book at Hampshire College from the USA, published an article entitled "Leaked report: Israel acknowledges Jews in fact Khazars; Secret plan for reverse migration to Ukraine." In doing so, less than a week after the Russian special military operation was launched, the article added an editor's note: "This blog article is a satirical piece. It was published in 2014 on the eve of Purim, a Jewish holiday celebrated with raucous merriment and riotous comedy – with a particular emphasis on mocking anti-Semitism and ignorance." Interestingly, until this point, almost a full 8 years ago - there was no such footnote to the article and it was not yet a satirical work.

#abrahamic #armenia #azerbaijan #caucasus #christianity #judaism #past #religion #revision #tatar #tartaria #tartars #timespace #war

english

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Wed, 20 Sep 2023 07:43:27 +0300

hosh

hosh@hub.vikshepa.com

The wikipedia article on the Khazars says: "The late 19th century saw the emergence of the theory that the core of today's Ashkenazi Jews are descended from a hypothetical Khazarian Jewish diaspora which migrated westward from modern-day Russia and Ukraine into modern-day France and Germany. Linguistic and genetic studies have not supported the theory of a Khazar connection to Ashkenazi Jewry. The theory still finds occasional support, but most scholars view it with considerable scepticism.[23][19] "

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 08:00:58 +0300

hosh

hosh@hub.vikshepa.com

@ivan zlax you may be interested in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invention_of_the_Jewish_People

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 08:45:24 +0300

ivan zlax

zlax@ussr.win

@hosh, there is an interesting fact that the oldest reliably dated full Old Testament was discovered less than 200 years ago. Christian versions of the scripture was translated from it, and most of the modern Jews pray according to this version of Tanakh. This is the so-called “Leningrad Codex“. It is also interesting that it was found in Odessa (by the intriguing character who was repeatedly accused of making fakes while he still alive). Considering that many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are occasionally recognised as forgeries, the Odessa-Leningrad Codex is the cornerstone of the millennial history of Judaism and Christianity.

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 08:48:21 +0300

ivan zlax

zlax@ussr.win

@hosh some fragments of biography about the "discoverer" of the oldest Hebrew scripture:

ivan zlax wrote the following post Sat, 07 Jan 2023 12:28:14 +0300

Авраам Самуилович Фиркович - известный караимский писатель и археолог, собиратель древних рукописей, газан, неоднократно обвинявшийся в изготовлении и распространении подделок.

Авраам Фиркович родился в 1787 году в семье крымских караимов-земледельцев в Луцком районе Волыни, входившей тогда в состав Российской империи, ныне Украина. В 1818 году он служил в местных крымско-караимских общинах в качестве младшего газана, или религиозного лидера, а оттуда отправился в город Евпаторию в Крыму. В 1822 году он переехал в караимскую общину в Гёзлеве, а в 1825 году был назначен газаном, или руководителем общины. Вместе с караимским дворянином Симхой Бабовичем он отправил царю меморандум с предложениями освободить караимов от тяжелых налогов, наложенных на еврейскую общину. В 1828 году он переехал в Бердичев, где познакомился со многими представителями хасидизма и узнал больше об их толкованиях еврейских Писаний, основанных на Талмуде и раввинистической традиции.

Встреча с евреями-раввинистами привела к тому, что Фиркович вступил с ними в конфликт. Он опубликовал книгу "Масса у-Мрива" (Евпатория, 1838), в которой аргументированно выступил против господствующей еврейской галахи раввинитов. В 1830 году он посетил Иерусалим, где собрал множество еврейских рукописей. По возвращении он оставался в течение двух лет в Константинополе в качестве учителя в тамошней караимской общине. Затем он отправился в Крым и организовал общество для издания старых караимских сочинений, несколько из которых появились в Евпатории (Козлов) с его комментариями. В 1838 году он был учителем детей Симхи Бабовича, главы русских крымских караимов, который год спустя рекомендовал его графу Воронцову и Историческому обществу Одессы как подходящего человека, которого можно послать для сбора материала для истории крымских караимов.

В 1839 году Фиркович начал раскопки на древнем кладбище Чуфут-Кале и обнаружил множество старых надгробий, утверждая, что некоторые из них относятся к первым векам. Следующие два года прошли в путешествиях по Кавказу, где он разграбил генизы старых еврейских общин и собрал множество ценных рукописей. Он дошел до Дербента и вернулся в 1842 году. В последующие годы он совершил другие путешествия такого же характера, посетив Египет и другие страны. В Одессе он стал другом Бецалеля Штерна и Симхи Пинскера, а проживая в Вильно, познакомился с Самуилом Иосифом Фуэнном и другими гебраистами. В 1871 году он посетил небольшую караимскую общину в Галиче, Галиция, где провел несколько реформ. Оттуда он отправился в Вену, где был представлен графу Бойсту, а также познакомился с Адольфом Еллинеком. Он вернулся, чтобы провести свои последние дни в Чуфут-Кале, от которого сейчас осталось лишь несколько зданий и множество руин. Однако дом Фирковича все еще сохранился на этом месте.

В результате своих исследований он сосредоточился на происхождении предков крымских караимов, которые, по его утверждению, прибыли в Крым еще до христианской эры. Поэтому караимы не могут считаться виновными в распятии Иисуса, поскольку они поселились в Крыму в столь ранний период. Его теории убедили российский императорский двор в том, что крымских караимов нельзя обвинять в распятии Иисуса, и они были исключены из ограничительных мер против евреев. Многие из его выводов были оспорены сразу после его смерти, и, несмотря на их важную ценность, до сих пор ведутся споры по поводу многих собранных им документов.

Российская национальная библиотека приобрела Вторую коллекцию Фирковича в 1876 году, чуть более чем через год после смерти Фирковича.

Abraham ben Samuel Firkovich was a famous Karaite writer and archaeologist, collector of ancient manuscripts, and a Karaite Hakham, who was repeatedly accused of distributing forgeries.

Abraham Firkovich was born in 1787 into a Crimean Karaite farming family in the Lutsk district of Volhynia, then part of the Russian Empire, now Ukraine. In 1818 he was serving the local Crimean Karaite communities as a junior hazzan, or religious leader, and from there he went on to the city of Eupatoria in Crimea. In 1822, he moved to the Karaite community in Gozleve, and he was appointed as hazan, or community leader, in 1825. Together with the Karaite noble Simha Babovich, he sent memoranda to the Czar, with proposals to relieve Karaites from the heavy taxes imposed on the Jewish community. In 1828 he moved to Berdichev, where he met many Hasidism and learned more about their interpretations of Jewish Scriptures based on the Talmud and rabbinic tradition.

The encounter with Rabbinical Jews brought Firkovich into conflict with them. He published a book, "Massah and Meribah" (Yevpatoria, 1838) which argued against the predominant Jewish halakha of the Rabbinites. In 1830 he visited Jerusalem, where he collected many Jewish manuscripts. On his return he remained for two years in Constantinople, as a teacher in the Karaite community there. He then went to Crimea and organized a society to publish old Karaite works, of which several appeared in Yevpatoria (Koslov) with comments by him. In 1838 he was the teacher of the children of Sima Babovich, the head of the Russian Crimean Karaites, who one year later recommended him to Count Vorontzov and to the Historical Society of Odessa as a suitable man to send to collect material for the history of the Crimean Karaites.

In 1839, Firkovich began excavations in the ancient cemetery of Çufut Qale, and unearthed many old tombstones, claiming that some of them dated from the first centuries of the common era. The following two years were spent in travels through the Caucasus, where he ransacked the genizot of the old Jewish communities and collected many valuable manuscripts. He went as far as Derbent, and returned in 1842. In later years he made other journeys of the same nature, visiting Egypt and other countries. In Odessa he became the friend of Bezalel Stern and of Simchah Pinsker, and while residing in Wilna he made the acquaintance of Samuel Joseph Fuenn and other Hebrew scholars. In 1871 he visited the small Karaite community in Halych, Galicia, where he introduced several reforms. From there he went to Vienna, where he was introduced to Count Beust and also made the acquaintance of Adolph Jellinek. He returned to pass his last days in Çufut Qale, of which there now remain only a few buildings and many ruins. However, Firkovich's house is still preserved in the site.

As a result of his research he became focused on the origin of the ancestors of the Crimean Karaites who he claimed had arrived in Crimea before the common era. The Karaites, therefore, could not be seen as culpable for the crucifixion of Jesus because they had settled in Crimea at such an early date. His theories persuaded the Russian imperial court that Crimean Karaites cannot be accused in Jesus' Crucifixion and they were excluded from the restrictive measures against Jews. Many of his findings were disputed immediately after his death, and despite their important value there is still controversy over many of the documents he collected.

The Russian National Library purchased the Second Firkovich Collection in 1876, a little more than a year after Firkovich's death.

Жизнь и творчество Фирковича имеют огромное значение для караимской истории и литературы. Его коллекции в Российской национальной библиотеке важны для библеистов и историков, особенно для представителей караимской и самаритянской общин. Продолжаются споры относительно его предполагаемых открытий и достоверности его трудов.

Авраам Фиркович собрал несколько отдельных коллекций документов. В общей сложности коллекция Фирковича содержит около 15 000 единиц хранения, многие из которых фрагментарны. Его коллекция представляет собой "безусловно, самое большое хранилище всех иудейско-арабских рукописей" и сегодня находится в Российской национальной библиотеке в Санкт-Петербурге, а микрофильмы всех рукописей хранятся в Институте микрофильмированных ивритских рукописей Еврейской национальной и университетской библиотеки в Иерусалиме.

Одесская коллекция содержит материалы из Крыма и Кавказа. Она была собрана в основном в 1839-1840 годах, но с дополнениями, сделанными Фирковичем в 1852 году. Первоначально она принадлежала Одесскому обществу истории и древностей и хранилась в Одесском музее. Некоторые из этих документов испортились в результате химической обработки, проведенной Фирковичем. Другие документы, которые подозревались в подделке, исчезли; Фиркович утверждал, что они были украдены. В 1863 году коллекция была перемещена в Императорскую публичную библиотеку.

Фирковича стали считать фальсификатором, действовавшим в поддержку караимских целей. Он хотел устранить любую связь между раввинским иудаизмом и караимами, объявив, что караимы являются потомками Десяти потерянных племен. Фиркович успешно ходатайствовал перед российским правительством об освобождении караимов от антиеврейских законов на том основании, что караимы иммигрировали в Европу до распятия Иисуса и поэтому не могут нести ответственность за его смерть.

S. Л. Рапопорт указал на некоторые невозможности в надписях (Ha-Meliẓ, 1861, №№ 13-15, 37); А. Гейгер в его Jüdische Zeitschrift (1865, p. 166), Шорр в He-Ḥaluẓ и A. Нойбауэр в Journal Asiatique (1862-63) и в своей Aus der Petersburger Bibliothek (Лейпциг, 1866) оспаривали правильность фактов и основанных на них теорий, которые Йост, Юлиус Фюрст и Генрих Гретц в своих трудах о караимах взяли из книги Пинскера Liḳḳuṭe Ḳadmoniyyot, в которой данные, предоставленные Фирковичем, были безоговорочно приняты. Дальнейшие экспозиции были сделаны Штраком и Харкави (Санкт-Петербург, 1875 г.) в Catalog der Hebr. Bibelhandschriften der Kaiserlichen Oeffentlichen Bibliothek in St. Petersburg; в Harkavy's Altjüdische Denkmäler aus der Krim (ib. 1876); в Strack's A. Firkowitsch und Seine Entdeckungen (Leipsic, 1876); в Fränkel's Aḥare Reshet le-Baḳḳer (Ha-Shaḥar, vii.646 и далее); в "Massa' Ḳrim" Дейнарда (Варшава, 1878); и в другими авторами.

В противоречие этому, самый сочувствующий критик Фирковича, Чвольсон, приводит в качестве резюме свое мнение, после рассмотрения всех противоречий, что Фирковичу удалось продемонстрировать, что некоторые еврейские надгробия из Чуфут-Кале датируются седьмым веком, и что, казалось бы, современные формы панегириков и метод подсчета по эпохе творения были в моде у евреев гораздо раньше, чем до сих пор предполагалось. Один только Чвольсон защищал его, но и он был вынужден признать, что в некоторых случаях Фиркович прибегал к подлогу. В своем труде "Corpus Inscriptionum Hebraicarum" (СПб., 1882; русское изд., ib. 1884) Чвольсон пытается доказать, что коллекция Фирковича, особенно эпитафии с надгробий, содержит и много подлинного.

В 1980 году В. В. Лебедев исследовал коллекцию Фирковича и пришел к выводу, что подделки не могут быть приписаны Фирковичу, а скорее это было сделано предыдущими владельцами в попытке повысить цену рукописей.

В течение многих лет рукописи были недоступны для западных ученых. Масштабы подделок Фирковича до сих пор выясняются. Материалы Фирковича требуют тщательного изучения в каждом отдельном случае. Его коллекция по-прежнему представляет большую ценность для ученых, изучающих иудаизм.

Примечательно, что самый древний полный и публично доступный Ветхий Завет был обнаружен именно Фирковичем. С него переведены христианские версии писания, а также по этой версии Танаха молятся большинство современных иудеев. Это так называемый “Ленинградский кодекс”, документально подтверждаемый провенанс которого начинается в Одессе. В отличии от многих других документов Фирковича - это рукопись считается аутентичной и до сих пор никогда не подвергалась научному химическому анализу материалов.

Firkovich's life and works are of great importance to Karaite history and literature. His collections at the Russian National Library are important to biblical scholars and to historians, especially those of the Karaite and Samaritan communities. Controversy continues regarding his alleged discoveries and the reliability of his works

Abraham Firkovich collected several distinct collections of documents. In sum the Firkovich collection contains approximately 15,000 items, of which many are fragmentary. His collections represent 'by far the greatest repository of all Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts' and are today held in the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, while microfilm reproductions of all the manuscripts are held in the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew manuscripts at the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem.

The Odessa Collection contains material from the Crimea and the Caucasus. It was largely collected between 1839 and 1840, but with additions from Firkovich as late as 1852. It was originally owned by the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities and was stored in the Odessa museum. Some of these documents deteriorated due to chemical treatment performed by Firkovich. Other documents which were suspected forgeries disappeared; Firkovich claimed they had been stolen. The collection was moved to the Imperial Public Library in 1863.

Firkovich has come to be regarded as a forger, acting in support of Karaite causes. He wished to eliminate any connection between Rabbinic Judaism and the Karaites by declaring that the Karaites were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes. Firkovich successfully petitioned the Russian government to exempt the Karaites from anti-Jewish laws on the grounds that Karaites had immigrated to Europe before the crucifixion of Jesus and thus could not be held responsible for his death.

S. L. Rapoport has pointed out some impossibilities in the inscriptions (Ha-Meliẓ, 1861, Nos. 13–15, 37); A. Geiger in his Jüdische Zeitschrift (1865, p. 166), Schorr in He-Ḥaluẓ, and A. Neubauer in the Journal Asiatique (1862–63) and in his Aus der Petersburger Bibliothek (Leipzig, 1866) have challenged the correctness of the facts and the theories based upon them which Jost, Julius Fürst, and Heinrich Grätz, in their writings on the Karaites, took from Pinsker's Liḳḳuṭe Ḳadmoniyyot, in which the data furnished by Firkovich were unhesitatingly accepted. Further exposures were made by Strack and Harkavy (St. Petersburg, 1875) in the Catalog der Hebr. Bibelhandschriften der Kaiserlichen Oeffentlichen Bibliothek in St. Petersburg; in Harkavy's Altjüdische Denkmäler aus der Krim (ib. 1876); in Strack's A. Firkowitsch und Seine Entdeckungen (Leipsic, 1876); in Fränkel's Aḥare Reshet le-Baḳḳer (Ha-Shaḥar, vii.646 et seq.); in Deinard's Massa' Ḳrim (Warsaw, 1878); and in other places.

In contradiction, Firkovich's most sympathetic critic, Chwolson, gives as a résumé of his belief, after considering all controversies, that Firkovich succeeded in demonstrating that some of the Jewish tombstones from Chufut-Kale date back to the seventh century, and that seemingly modern forms of eulogy and the method of counting after the era of creation were in vogue among Jews much earlier than had been hitherto suspected. Chwolson alone defended him, but he also was forced to admit that in some cases Firkovich had resorted to forgery. In his Corpus Inscriptionum Hebraicarum (St. Petersburg, 1882; Russian ed., ib. 1884) Chwolson attempts to prove that the Firkovich collection, especially the epitaphs from tombstones, contains much which is genuine.

In 1980, V. V. Lebedev investigated the Firkovich collection and came to the conclusion that forgery cannot be attributed to Firkovich, but rather it was done by the previous owners, in an attempt to increase the price of the manuscripts.

For many years the manuscripts were not available to Western scholars. The extent of Firkovich's forgeries is still being determined. Firkovich's materials require careful examination on a case-by-case basis. His collection remains of great value to scholars of Jewish studies.

It is noteworthy that the oldest complete and publicly available Old Testament was discovered by Firkovich. Christian versions of the scriptures have been translated from it, and most modern Jews pray according to this version of the Tanakh. It is the so-called "Leningrad Codex", whose documented provenance begins in Odessa. Unlike many of Firkovich's other documents - this manuscript is considered authentic and has never been subjected to scientific chemical analysis of the materials until now.

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004276819_010
https://doi.org/10.1080/13501674.2018.1434980
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/inventing-the-karaites

#ancient #bible #crimea #documents #forgery #history #hoax #jewish #karaite #odessa #past #religion #revision #russianempire #writings

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 09:01:05 +0300

hosh

hosh@hub.vikshepa.com

Well, it should be a valuable source then. The Hindus had the better idea, by committing their scriptures to memory, and not depending upon error-prone scribes and translators.

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 09:24:28 +0300

ivan zlax

zlax@ussr.win

@hosh

Well, it should be a valuable source then. The Hindus had the better idea, by committing their scriptures to memory, and not depending upon error-prone scribes and translators.

Ancient Sanskrit is probably just as newfangled. "Written on birch bark". Here is a short article (in Russian - you can use the automatic translation if you are interested) about the original authors of the epic project of ancient Sanskrit.

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 09:41:08 +0300

hosh

hosh@hub.vikshepa.com

I didn't try. I'm speaking of the body of work known as the Vedas, though, rather than more recent works. Those were composed in proto-Sanskrit, learned by rote and passed down through the generations without originally being written down. Their meaning is often controversial - we don't always know what they were talking about today - but I think the variations in the texts found in different parts of India, particularly of the Rig-veda, I think is fairly slight, considering the passage of time. The problem with birch bark texts, besides the possibility that scribes could make errors, is that they are often consumed by insects or mildew.

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 10:35:21 +0300

ivan zlax

zlax@ussr.win

@hosh

I didn't try. I'm speaking of the body of work known as the Vedas, though, rather than more recent works. Those were composed in proto-Sanskrit, learned by rote and passed down through the generations without originally being written down.

That's according to common legend. If you study this question and the sources in more detail, you find that an "ancient Sanskrit corpus" is being created to this day, mostly in Britain (although German and Russian Sanskritologists continue to contribute too). Graphs of the English language references to the names of these ancient writings clearly demonstrate that they became known in the West about 200 years ago, with peaks before that indicating forgery, when later books were deliberately incorrectly dated to make them older. This project seems to have been actively supported by the British East India Company to create a new version of history "older" than the Mughal one, but initiated by the Jesuits (at their Base in Goa, by Heinrich Roth). Just 225 years ago, the Indians told a Catholic missionary that Lakshmi is the Virgin Mary, and Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva is the Trinity, and judging by his words, many missionaries and some roman "hypothesis-mongers" believed in this. It is also interesting that the author of the first European textbook of Sanskrit grammar called this language "Samscred", apparently by that time this terminology was still being formed:
Image/photo

https://archive.org/details/b22037202/page/14/mode/2up

The problem with birch bark texts, besides the possibility that scribes could make errors, is that they are often consumed by insects or mildew.

Undoubtedly, but despite this, Indian and Russian birch bark are miraculously considered reliable sources of antiquity. There was also a Hungarian ancient birch bark project - but it was unsuccessful and failed. The discoverer of the Hungarian birch bark writings was exposed as a forger: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004276819_008
Another one of the more professionally forged sources is the “Wooden book from Túróc,” which is not actually in the folders of the Széchényi Library. In contrast to its name, it is in fact not a book, only a piece of birch-bark (cortex) with some “early Hungarian runic script” on it. This object is no longer extant (more precisely: its location is unknown), only copies of it survived. Its alleged runic text—according to its decipherers listing names of Hungarian historical families—was unmasked as a forgery on philological grounds. It was pointed out that the script was based on the description of runes by Matthias Bél in the eighteenth century instead of going back to earlier examples of this kind of script.

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 10:07:07 +0300

ivan zlax

zlax@ussr.win

@hosh

@ivan zlax you may be interested in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invention_of_the_Jewish_People

Another one: https://www.hayadan.org.il/bible-no-evidence-291099

After 70 years of painstaking excavation in the Land of Israel, the archaeologists come to a frightening conclusion: there were never things. The deeds of the ancestors are folk legends, we did not go down to Egypt and we did not ascend from there, we did not conquer the land and there is no trace of the empire of David and Solomon.

Author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze%27ev_Herzog

Ze’ev Herzog (Hebrew: זאב הרצוג; born 1941) is an Israeli archeologist, professor of archaeology at The Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University specializing in social archaeology, ancient architecture and field archaeology. Ze’ev Herzog served as director of The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology from 2005 to 2010, and has served as archaeological advisor to the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority in the preservation and development of National Parks at Arad and Beer Sheba.