Joe Uziel

The Tel Nagila Publication Project

Published 2025 (granted 2006)
View the publication's webpage: Tel Nagila. The Amiran-Eitan Excavations

Joe Uziel is the head of the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), a position he has held since January 2020. He earned his Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University in 2008 and has been involved with the IAA since the mid-1990s, participating in excavations at sites such as the City of David and the Western Wall Tunnels, where he uncovered artifacts spanning from the Middle Bronze Age to the Mamluk period. His research focuses on the archaeology of Jerusalem, particularly during the Bronze and Iron Ages and the Roman period.

Uziel has contributed to significant discoveries, including a cache of First Temple period bullae (clay sealings) found in the City of David, which provide evidence of administrative systems and possible migration of refugees from the Kingdom of Israel to Judah after the Assyrian conquest in 720 BCE. He has also been involved in the recovery of a rare papyrus from the First Temple period, believed to be one of only three known documents of its kind from that era, which offers insights into literacy and governance during that time.