The collection contains extensive materials related to several major excavations conducted by the Meyers and their teams in Israel from the 1970s to the 1990s, as well as materials related to later publications about their work. Formats include binders and notebooks of field notes, charts, and records; maps; notecards; photographs (including many slides, prints, and negatives); coins; news clippings; a few video and audio recordings; some administrative and correspondence files; and many drawings of sites and artifacts. There are also electronic records, most of which are black-and-white scans of photographs, negatives, and field notebooks, and drawings, many of these, but not all, are scans of items located in the collection.
Topics represented by the materials include 20th century archaeology and practices; the Sepphoris, Meiron, Khirbet Shema, Nabratein, and Gush Halav excavation sites in Israel, including maps and many photographs of the sites; Jewish and Arabic artifacts such as coins and pottery; other ancient artifacts; and religious and biblical studies as they relate to archaeology.
Materials have been kept in the binders and folders in which they were received. The collection is organized by accession number, but materials in separate accession number groups are intrinsically connected.
The addition (A2003-30) includes binders from an archeological dig in Gush Halav, and Arabic and Jewish coins from the Meiron and Khirbet Shema digs.
Accessions from 2010 and 2017 include materials from archeological digs in Nabratein, Meiron, Gush Halav, and Khirbet Shema.
The accessions from 2019 include materials from digs in Khirbet Shema, Gush Halav, Nabratein, Meiron, and Sepphoris, among other materials. Also received in 2019 are over 1200 digital files from the Sepphoris site, which have been migrated to a library server.
Eric M. and Carol L. Meyers are both professors in the Department of Religion at Duke University.
Eric M. Meyers joined Duke in 1969, after receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Since joining the faculty of Duke, Eric Meyers has published extensively in the fields of biblical archeology and Judaism, often collaborating with wife Carol Meyers. He has also directed many archeological excavations in Israel and Italy. Eric Meyers is now Bernice and Morton Lerner Professor of Judaic Studies, and directs the Graduate Program in Religion.
Carol L. Meyers received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University, and joined Duke in 1977. Like her husband, Carol Meyers also focuses on biblical archeology and biblical studies, and is especially interested in the role of women in the biblical world. She has published widely, and directs many archeological excavations. She is Co-Director of Duke's Summer in Israel Program, and also directs undergraduate studies in the Duke Department of Religion. The holder of the Mary Grace Wilson Professorship in Religion, Carol Meyers is also an affiated faculty member in the Women Studies Program at Duke.
Processed by Valerie Gillispie
Completed May 29, 2003
Additions processed by Valerie Gillispie
Completed July 30, 2003
Updated in 2009.
UA2010.0011 and UA2010.0034 added by Tracy M. Jackson, July 2017.
UA2017.0065 added by Tracy M. Jackson, December 2017.
UA2019.0076 added by Tracy M. Jackson, September 2019.
UA2019.0028 added by Paula Jeannet, September 2020.
