Aegis - Igor Kreimerman

Igor Kreimerman

Postdoctoral fellow of the Minerva Stiftung, Heidelberg University

Destruction and contruction, Conflict – Late Bronze Age collapse – Biblical archaeology

Email : Kreimerm.igor@mail.huji.ac.il See my CV on Academia

Researcher Profile

Igor Kreimerman is a postdoctoral fellow of the Minerva Stiftung at Heidelberg University (since December 2019). His research combines the use of geoarchaeology, experimental archaeology and traditional archaeological methods for the study of formation processes, especially construction and destruction, in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant.

His current project examines destruction layers in the Eastern Mediterranean in order to delineate the processes that were involved in the collapse of the political system of the Late Bronze Age. This research involves an examination of the extent of destruction – the burning and abandonment of structures, breakage and mutilation of objects, evidence of earthquakes – to draw a distinction between warfare and conflict -induced destruction, nature-induced destruction, and accidental destruction. In addition, a review of literary sources, especially from the ancient Near East, is used to understand destruction by fire as a cultural phenomenon and outline the reasons that caused various groups in the Late Bronze Age to burn cities down.

Education

2018 : PhD thesis in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). Title of the PhD dissertation: Micro- and Macroarchaeological Investigation of Destruction Layers: Tel Lachish as a Case Study (supervisors: Dr. Prof. Yosef Garfinkel and Dr. Prof. Ruth Shahack-Gross). Submitted: Nov. 2018, Approved: Feb. 2019.
2013 : Master of Arts in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).
2011 : Bachelor of Science in in Mathematics and Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).

Research topics

Archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Levant and Eastern Mediterranean
Destruction and construction ; Conflict
Late Bronze Age collapse
Biblical archaeology

Field projects

2010–2013: Khirbet Qeiyafa, Area supervisor

2013–2017: Tel Lachish, Field director (Area BB)

2015–2018: Khirbet al-Ra’i, Area Supervisor

Choice of publications/conferences (5 max.)

Kreimerman, I. 2020. Why Were Cities Destroyed in Times of War? A View from the Southern Levant in the Third and Second Millennia BCE. In: K. Ruffing, K. Droß-Krüpe, S. Fink and R. Rollinger (eds.), Societies at War (Melammu Symposia 10). Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Pp. 345–383.
Kreimerman, I. and M. Devolder. 2020. Leaving no Ashlar Unturned: Definitions, Technical Features and Regional Synopsis of Cut-Stone Masonry in the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age. In: M. Devolder and I. Kreimerman (eds.), Ashlar: Exploring the Materiality of Cut-Stone Masonry in the Eastern Mediterranean (Aegis 17). Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain. Pp. 1–71.
Kreimerman, I. and R. Shahack-Gross. 2019. Understanding Conflagration of One-Story Mud-Brick Structures: An Experimental Approach.Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(6): 2911–2928.
Kreimerman, I. 2017. Skeletons in Bronze and Iron Age Destruction Contexts in the Southern Levant: What do They Mean? West & East 2: 13–30.
Kreimerman, I. 2017. A Typology for Destruction Layers: The Late Bronze Age Southern Levant as a Case Study, in T. Cunningham and J. Driessen and (eds.), Crisis to Collapse: The Archaeology of Social Breakdown (Aegis 11). Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain. Pp. 173–203.