Professor brings Dead Sea Scrolls to life in Campbell lecture

Buies Creek, N.C.-The Dead Sea Scrolls have fascinated scholars since their discovery in 1947. Dr. Jodi Magness, Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina, shines a light on the Dead Sea Scrolls in a lecture sponsored by the Campbell University Department of Religion and Philosophy. Taken from her book of the same name, Magness’ presentation, “The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” is set for Monday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m. in Lynch Auditorium of the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business. Admission is free and open to the public.

Magness has published extensively on archaeology in Palestine. Her book on the Dead Sea Scrolls won the 2001-2002 Biblical Archaeology Society award for Best Popular Book in Archaeology. She also received the Irene Levi-Sala Book Prize for her work, “The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine,” considered required reading for scholars interested in the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods. Magness has participated in 20 excavations in Israel and Greece, including co-directing the 1995 excavations at Masada in the Judean Desert, the last Jewish outpost against the Roman siege.

Magness received a bachelor’s degree in archaeology and history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Ph.D. in classical archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania. From 1992-2002, she served as an associate/assistant professor in the departments of Classics and Art History at Tufts University.

This marks the university’s 10th annual Religion and Philosophy Department Lecture.