Dr. Larry Stager

Dr. Larry Stager received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (1975). He taught Archaeology and History of the Levant at the University of Chicago in the Oriental Institute (1973-1986). From 1986-present Dr. Stager has been the Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the departments of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and of Anthropology at Harvard, where he teaches archaeology and ancient history of the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean mainly in the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Dr. Stager's focus has been on social and economic history as reconstructed from texts and archaeology. He is Director of the Harvard Semitic Museum and general editor of its publications series. Phil King and he has just completed a book entitled "Life in Biblical Israel," which highlights aspects of daily life among courtiers and commoners.

Dr. Stager is a committee member of the Shelby White-Leon Levy Publications Program, which awards grants to professional archaeologists who are publishing "dead digs." He has been a field archaeologist for the past 35 years, directing excavations at Idalion, Cyprus; Carthage, Tunisia (Tophet and Commercial Harbor); and (since 1985) the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon. He is currently involved with ancient DNA research in order to add another dimension to the study the origins and movements of Canaanites and Sea Peoples. Recently, working with Dr. Robert Ballard and archaeologists from the Leon Levy Expedition and oceanographers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Dr. Stager conducted deep-sea research off the coast of Ashkelon, where two Phoenician shipwrecks (8th century B.C.) were studied using remote operating vehicles (ROV's). They are now involved in research and development to produce ROV's with excavating capabilities by 2003.