← All articles

Total current articles · 4,831

Leo Aryeh Mayer

Published

01In brief

Leo Aryeh Mayer (1895–1959) was an Israeli archaeologist, scholar of Islamic art, and professor of Near Eastern art and archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research ranged from Islamic heraldry and Mamluk costume to Jerusalem’s fortifications. He also excavated the ancient synagogue at Eshtemoa. He served as rector of the Hebrew University from 1943 to 1945, and Jerusalem’s L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art was named in his honor.

02Early Life

Mayer was born in 1895 in Stanislav, then in Austrian Poland.[2] His name also appears as Leo Ary.[2] His full name is recorded as Leon Aryeh ben Baruch Meir.[5] He settled in Palestine in 1921.[2]

03Career and Public Life

After settling in Palestine, Mayer worked successively as an inspector of antiquities, librarian, and keeper of records for the Department of Antiquities.[2] In 1925 he became a lecturer in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Oriental Studies.[2] He held a professorship in Near Eastern art and archaeology from 1932 to 1958.[2]

His university responsibilities included heading the Institute of Oriental Studies and serving as dean of the Faculty of Humanities.[2] From 1943 to 1945, he was rector of the university.[2] Beyond the university, Mayer served as president of the Israel Exploration Society from 1940 until his death in 1959 and also held the presidency of the Israel Oriental Society.[2] He advised Israel’s Ministry of Religious Affairs on Muslim buildings.[6]

Mayer specialized in Islamic art, costume, epigraphy, and numismatics.[2] His publications included Saracenic Heraldry; a Survey (1933), Mamluk Costume; a Survey (1952), and Islamic Architects and Their Works (1956), a comprehensive study of Muslim artists.[2][5] His other works included The Rise and Progress of Moslem Archaeology, The Buildings of Quaytbay, Bibliography of Moslem Numismatics, and L’art Juif en Terre d’Islam.[6] He also wrote on Muslim religious buildings in Israel.[5]

His research on Jewish art included the Hebrew-language work Jewish Art in Islamic Countries.[7] In that study, he argued that medieval Islamic objects generally could not be assigned to particular subject peoples without evidence such as inscriptions or an object’s intended use.[7] His Hebrew study “A Sixteenth Century Samaritan Hanging” appeared in the Bulletin of the Jewish Exploration Society, volume XIII, in 1947.[7] The hanging’s illustration of Samaritan synagogue furnishings incorporated Islamic visual elements, including a mihrab.[7]

Mayer’s archaeological fieldwork included a study, with E. L. Sukenik, of stone blocks north of Jerusalem’s present northern wall between 1925 and 1927.[3] The line of blocks extended approximately 1,600 feet, or 500 meters.[3] In 1935–36, Mayer and A. Reifenberg excavated the remains of an ancient synagogue at Eshtemoa.[4] His work formed part of Hebrew University archaeological investigations of the Jewish past, alongside those of B. Maisler and Sukenik; these investigations encompassed Jerusalem’s Third Wall, Jewish tombs around Jerusalem and at Beth Shearim, and synagogue remains at Beth Alpha and Hammath Gader.[8]

04Legacy

Jerusalem’s L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art bears his name.[2] Its founder, Vera Bryce Salomons, had been his student.[9] Mayer also collected rare clocks, a type of object represented in the museum’s collections.[9]

His Bibliography of Jewish Art appeared posthumously in 1967, edited by Otto Kurz and published by Magnes Press in Jerusalem.[10] The volume comprises 374 pages and includes an index.[10] His bibliographic record links him to 43 books and 35 articles.[5]

Mayer’s studies continued to be cited after his death: a 1960 discussion of Jewish art drew on both Jewish Art in Islamic Countries and his study of the Samaritan hanging.[7] At Eshtemoa, later excavations by Z. Yeivin in 1969–70 uncovered a mosaic pavement bearing an Aramaic inscription at the synagogue site Mayer and Reifenberg had investigated.[4]

05Controversies

Mayer and Sukenik identified the stone blocks they studied north of Jerusalem’s northern wall as remains of the city’s so-called Third Wall.[3] That identification was disputed among scholars, but excavations in the 1970s subsequently supported it.[3]

Sources

  1. 1Jewish Virtual Library, Art Historians and Art Critics, accessed on November 12, 2026.
  2. 2Encyclopedia.com, Mayer, Leo Ary, accessed on November 12, 2026.
  3. 3Encyclopedia.com, Jerusalem, accessed on November 12, 2026.
  4. 4Encyclopedia.com, Eshtemoa, accessed on November 12, 2026.
  5. 5National Library of Israel, L. A. Mayer, accessed on November 12, 2026.
  6. 6Internet Archive, Full text of "books on iconography", accessed on November 12, 2026.
  7. 7Institute for Jewish Policy Research, Heinrich Strauss, Jewish Art as a Minority Problem, accessed on November 12, 2026.
  8. 8Jewish Virtual Library, Archaeology, accessed on November 12, 2026.
  9. 9The Jerusalem Post, Making up for lost time, accessed on November 12, 2026.
  10. 10National Library of Israel, Bibliography of Jewish Art, accessed on November 12, 2026.

IsraelPedia Question & Answers

  • Who was Leo Aryeh Mayer?

    Leo Aryeh Mayer (1895–1959) was an Israeli archaeologist, scholar of Islamic art, and professor of Near Eastern art and archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research covered subjects including Islamic heraldry, Mamluk costume, and Jerusalem’s fortifications, and he excavated the ancient synagogue at Eshtemoa. He served as the university’s rector from 1943 to 1945.

  • What roles did Leo Aryeh Mayer hold at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem?

    Leo Aryeh Mayer became a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1925 and held a professorship in Near Eastern art and archaeology from 1932 to 1958. He also headed the Institute of Oriental Studies, served as dean of the Faculty of Humanities, and was rector from 1943 to 1945.

  • What subjects did Leo Aryeh Mayer study and write about?

    Leo Aryeh Mayer specialized in Islamic art, costume, epigraphy, and numismatics, and also researched Jewish art. His publications included Saracenic Heraldry; a Survey, Mamluk Costume; a Survey, and Islamic Architects and Their Works. In Jewish Art in Islamic Countries, he argued that medieval Islamic objects generally could not be assigned to particular subject peoples without evidence such as inscriptions or an object’s intended use.

  • What archaeological fieldwork did Leo Aryeh Mayer carry out?

    Leo Aryeh Mayer and E. L. Sukenik studied stone blocks north of Jerusalem’s present northern wall between 1925 and 1927; the blocks extended approximately 1,600 feet, or 500 meters. They identified the remains as part of the city’s so-called Third Wall, an interpretation disputed among scholars but subsequently supported by excavations in the 1970s. In 1935–36, Mayer and A. Reifenberg excavated the remains of an ancient synagogue at Eshtemoa.

  • What is the L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art named after?

    Jerusalem’s L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art is named in honor of Leo Aryeh Mayer. The museum’s founder, Vera Bryce Salomons, had been Mayer’s student, and its collections include rare clocks, which Mayer collected.

  • What happened to Leo Aryeh Mayer’s research and writings after his death?

    Leo Aryeh Mayer’s Bibliography of Jewish Art was published posthumously in 1967, edited by Otto Kurz and published by Magnes Press in Jerusalem. His studies continued to be cited after his death, including in a 1960 discussion of Jewish art. Later excavations by Z. Yeivin in 1969–70 uncovered a mosaic pavement bearing an Aramaic inscription at the Eshtemoa synagogue site Mayer and Reifenberg had investigated.