Israel Exploration Journal

The Israel Exploration Journal is published by the Israel Exploration Society, whose English-language archaeological publishing program includes a journal and monograph series concerning the Holy Land.[7][3] The periodical carries ISSN 0021-2059, and catalog records identify it as an English-language scholarly publication.[1][4] A digitized issue from 1953 is identified as volume 3, issue 2, with 74 pages and holdings in serials and microfilm collections.[4] Separate records identify volume 41 in 1991 and volume 76 in 2026, documenting the journal's multi-decade publication history without establishing that every intervening issue appeared without interruption.[8][2]

The journal belongs to a wider family of Society publications that includes the Hebrew-language periodical Qadmoniot, the Hebrew-English series Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies, and Studies in the Geography of Israel.[3] These language designations distinguish the English-language journal from publications intended primarily for Hebrew readers. A Jerusalem Post anniversary account presented the journal as a resource for scholars, historians, and the general public.[9]

The journal was in publication by 1953, when its second issue of volume 3 appeared, while an Encyclopaedia Judaica reference entry lists its run as beginning in 1951.[3][4] The available sources therefore place its origins in the early 1950s without resolving every bibliographic discrepancy concerning its first year.

Michael Avi-Yonah served for many decades as editor of the Israel Exploration Journal, which the biographical source characterizes as a leading scholarly journal.[10] During Joseph Aviram's leadership of the Israel Exploration Society, the journal formed part of a publishing portfolio described as comprising numerous works of very high scientific quality.[11] That portfolio also included final reports on Beth Shearim, the Judean Desert, Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter, Jericho, Yokneam, Dor, Masada, and Arad.[11]

The journal's cataloged record includes excavation reports and settlement studies.[5][6] Other records document work in West-Semitic epigraphy and manuscript research, while a 2026 article concerns early Islamic Arabic inscriptions.[12][13][2] Research-portal records classify individual contributions as peer-reviewed journal articles in archaeology and history.[1][2]

Excavation reporting appears in the journal's early volumes. A Beth Shearim excavation report was reprinted from volume 5, issue 4, published in 1955.[14] Ruth Amiran's preliminary reports on Tel Arad appeared in volume 14, issue 3, in 1964 and volume 17 in 1967, documenting the first two excavation seasons covered by the records.[15][16] The study "Giloh: an Early Israelite Settlement near Jerusalem," published in volume 31, issues 1–2, in 1981, occupied pages 1–36.[6]

Epigraphic and manuscript studies have also appeared in its pages. "Expedition D: the Cave of the Letters" occupied pages 227–257 of volume 12, issues 3–4, in 1962.[5] Joseph Naveh's "Hazael's Booty Inscriptions" appeared in volume 39, issues 3–4, in 1989 and was later reprinted in his 2009 collection Studies in West-Semitic Epigraphy.[12] An article on the manuscript library of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem appeared in volume 19 in 1969 and was subsequently included in a 2006 collection on Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and Armenian studies.[13]

The journal's significance lies partly in its sustained role as a venue for preliminary excavation reports and specialized archaeological and historical studies. Its contents connect early reports from sites such as Tel Arad with peer-reviewed research published decades later.[15][1]

A 2022 article in volume 72, issue 2, on pages 189–203, authored by Yulia Ustinova, Pablo Betzer, and Daniel Varga, examined an inscribed lead sling bullet from Iamnia, or Yavneh, dated to the second century BCE.[1] The inscription reads "victory of Heracles and Hauronas." The authors identify it as the first mention in their homeland of the pair known as the patrons of Iamnia.[1]

A 2020 study in volume 70, issue 2, on pages 173–188, presented preliminary conclusions from a recently excavated and previously unknown seventh-century BCE occupation phase at Tel Beth Shemesh East.[17] The authors argued that the findings change the understanding of Judaean settlement in the Shephelah following Sennacherib's destruction in 701 BCE, presenting this as the study's scholarly interpretation rather than an uncontested conclusion.[17]

Volume 76, issue 1, published in 2026, carried Robert Hoyland and Yana Tchekhanovets's study of previously unpublished Arabic inscriptions discovered during three archaeological expeditions at Nessana in southern Israel.[2] The inscriptions, written on stone, marble, and plaster, represent religious, economic, and personal correspondence and most likely date to the eighth century CE.[2] The authors use them to examine village life during the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods, including language and the extent to which Nessana shared the experiences of nearby Negev settlements.[2]