The GPIA thanks all colleagues, friends and donators for the cooperation and support.

Merry Christmas & a blessed New Year 2012 to all of you.

Matthias PlatzekLast Wednesday, 1 June 2011, the foundation stone of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem has been opened. In the context of the “Touristic Development Project of the Excavation” underneath the church it was the first opening since 1893 when the stone was placed.

With the help of Matthias Platzek, prime minister of the federal state Brandenburg/Germany, and Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Gehrke, former president of the DAI Berlin, Prof. Dieter Vieweger opened the foundation stone. In front of the guests from politics, culture, ecumenism and economics he presented the uncovered casket with the foundation charter, a bible and three coins.

The project is a cooperation between the GPIA, the Circle of Friends of the GPIA and the Evangelisch-in-Jerusalem-Foundation.

Representatively for all sponsors and partners we cordially thank the Federal Foreign Office, Berlin, and the German representative Office in Ramallah, the federal state Brandenburg, the Evangelical Church in Germany, the German Archaeological Institute, the University of Applied Science Potsdam, the Jerusalemsverein and the Evangelisch-kirchlicher Hilfsverein Potsdam.

Team 2011April 25th was the last day of the seven weeks spring campaign 2011 on Tall Zirā’a. Up to 76 archaeologists, students of archaeology and theology, volunteers and local workers worked on the tall and brought again many very interesting finds to light as well as new insights in the history of settlement development, trade and craft activities. We thank all participants as well as institutions which helped to carry out this campaign successfully. And the work will go on: we are already planning the summer campaign for July 2011.

Please also have a look at our website: www.tallziraa.de

We cordially invite you to our next lecture: On Monday, 28th of March, 2011, Florian Lippke (SNF-Research-Assistant, IPIAO, University Bern) is giving a talk on "Classified Images?! - The Iconography of Palestine/Israel and the Ancient Near East (IPIAO).”

Texts have ever since played an important role concerning historical research. However reconstructing the History of Religions especially in the Levant (being part of the Ancient Near East) other genres have to be taken into account as well. An overall importance for this quest is the iconographic material which was examined by Silvia Schroerand Othmar Keel in detailed studies before. Consequent analysis of the images originating from Palestine/Israel (beginning in the earliest epochs ending at the dawn of Hellenism) is achieved by the project IPIAO (Swiss National Science Foundation, Bern). The lecture provides a general overview concerning former stages of research as well as the actual work flows. Furthermore the project’s publications up to the present dayare presented and the main preliminary results are discussed.

The lecture takes place in the seminar room of the Church of the Ascension (Auguste Victoria Compound, Mount of Olives) at 6 pm and will be followed by light refreshments at the Institute.

Sorting sherdsPath to the TallOn March 6th, 2011 the ninthe excavation campaign started on Tall Ziraa/Jordan. You are most welcome to visit us there. Please register your visit with the GPIA Amman before (email: gpia@go.com.jo :: phone: 00962 6 534 29 24).

In the end of January 2011, Dr. Jutta Häser and Prof. Dieter Vieweger attended the near East conference of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in the United Arab Emirates.

They presented the archaeological work that the GPIA is doing on behalf of the EKD.

The GPIA thanks all colleagues, friends and donators for the cooperation and support.

Merry Christmas & a blessed New Year to all of you.

We welcome our new assistant Andreas Mehnert sent by the DAI Berlin who started his work on May 18th, 2010 in Jerusalem. More details about his person and his PhD project you can find following this link.

Schick’s topography model of Jerusalem was lent to the Israel-Museum. The archaeology wing of the museum will be reopening in the end of July 2010 after being closed for reconstruction works for several years. Our model will be part of the reopening exhibition „Breaking Ground: Pioneers of Biblical Archaeology“ and will be displayed together with two maps of our collection in the part about Conrad Schick.

We cordially invite you to our next lecture: On Monday, 26^th of April, Prof. Dr. Gerald Finkielsztejn (IAA) is giving a talk about "The archaeology of the vanished buildings outside New Gate in Jerusalem (1880s-1948)." The lecture takes place at the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology (Auguste Victoria Compound, Mount of Olives) at 5 pm and will be followed by light refreshments.