DR. HAIM GITLER

Biography

Born in Mexico in 1962, Dr. Haim Gitler immigrated to Israel in 1974.

He received his BA and MA in Archaeology from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and was awarded a PhD from Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland in 2011.

Professional Background

Haim joined the staff of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, in 1987, becoming Curator of Numismatics in 1994. In this capacity, he oversaw the renewal of the permanent galleries of Numismatics in 1994 and 2010, as well as curating numerous temporary exhibitions of numismatics.

In 2013, Dr. Gitler was appointed the Tamar and Teddy Kollek Chief Curator of Archaeology at the Israel Museum, with overall responsibility for the management of the Museum’s Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archeology Wing, as well as the Shrine of the Book, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the off-site Rockefeller Archaeological Museum.

Haim taught Numismatics at the Rehovot campus of the Hebrew University from 1996 through 1998, and at Tel Aviv University from 2010 through 2014.

From 2005 through 2016, he served as President of the Israel Numismatic Society (INS) (http://www.ins.org.il), founding its prestigious journal Israel Numismatic Research in 2006 (http://www.ins.org.il/23/Israel-Numismatic-Research). He was previously Associate Editor of the Israel Numismatic Journal.

In 2018, Haim was reelected President of the INS, a position he still holds.

Dr. Gitler has also served as a member of the Bank of Israel’s Committee for Planning Coins, Banknotes, and Commemorative Issues.

Haim has been a member of archaeological expeditions in Israel and Jordan. In Israel, he has published numerous articles on the numismatic findings from the excavations of the Jewish Quarter, Jerusalem; Ashkelon; the Ancient Boat in the Sea of Galilee; Har Adar; and Khirbet el-‘Aqd. He has also presented papers on excavations in Jordan conducted by Father Michele Piccirillo of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum: Mount Nebo, Umm al–Rasas and Madaba; and the excavations at Az-Zanṭūr in Petra, conducted by Prof. Bernhard Kolb of Basel University.

Areas of Scholarship and Publications

Haim’s main areas of specialization include the coinages of Persian Late Period Palestine: Philistia, Samaria, Judah and Edom. He has published more than 90 articles on Electrum, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Crusader, and Modern coinages. Other topics on which he has written extensively include papers on metallurgical analyses of coins and jewelry; Hacksilber hoards; Roman and Islamic coin dies; clay bullae from the excavations in Petra; Byzantine and Islamic weights; Crusader lead seals; magical amulets; and museology. He has collaborated with more than 35 scholars worldwide on these publications (see https://imjnet.academia.edu/HaimGitler).

Selected Academic Publications

·       The Coinage of Philistia of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC. A Study of the Earliest Coins of Palestine, Milan, 2006, in collaboration with Oren Tal

·       The Nablus 1968 Hoard. A Study of Monetary Circulation in the Late Fourth and Early Third Centuries BCE in the Southern Levant, New York, 2019, in collaboration with Oren Tal

·       The Silver Coinage of Septimius Severus and His Family 193–211 AD. A Study of the Chemical Composition of the Roman and Eastern Issues, Milan, 2003, in collaboration with Matthew Ponting

·       Sylloge of the Islamic Coins in the Israel Museum, The Paul Balog Collection, Egypt. III. The Mamluks 1248–1517, Trieste 2011, by Issa Baidoun and a contribution by Warren C. Schultz by Stefan Heidemann with the assistance of Haim Gitler

·       Faces of Power. Roman Gold Coins from the Victor A. Adda Collection, Formigine (MO) 2017, edited with Gil Gambash

·       White Gold, Studies in Early Electrum Coinage, New York 2020, edited by Peter van Alfen and Ute Wartenberg

·       Griechische Münzen in Winterthur, Band III, in collaboration with Kevin Butcher and Marguerite Spoerri Butcher and Benedikt Zäch (forthcoming)

·       Sylloge of the Islamic Coins in the Israel Museum, The Paul Balog Collection, Bilād al-Shām and the Jazīra: The Middle Islamic Period by Issa Baidoun, Stefan Heidemann and Matthias Naue with the assistance of Reuven Amitai and Haim Gitler (forthcoming)

In Progress:

The Yehud Coinage: A Study and Die Classification of the Provincial Silver Coinage of Judah in collaboration with Catharine Lorber, and Jean-Philippe Fontanille. This volume presents a die study of the provincial silver coinage of Judah in the late Persian, Macedonian, and early Hellenistic periods.

Awards and Scholarships

International:

·       Colin Kraay Scholarship, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

·       Robinson Visiting Scholarship (Heberden Coin Room), in association with the Kraay Visitorship (Wolfson College, Oxford)

·       Visiting Scholar, Summer Graduate Seminar of the American Numismatic Society, New York

·       Visiting Scholar, Sir Asher Joel Foundation, Macquarie University Department of Ancient History

·       Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Scholarship, Berlin State Museums

·       Medal of the Department of Cultural Heritage presented by the Polish Secretary of State

·       Visiting Professors Program, Ossolineum, Wrocław

·       Recipient of GIF (German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development) grant, together with Prof. Stephan Heidemann and Prof. Reuven Amitai

·       Member of the Silver Isotopes and the Rise of Money team, led by Prof. Francis Albarede, a project funded by the ERC (European Commission).

Israel:

·       Reuben Hecht Fellowship for Advanced Studies in Numismatics

·       Weizmann Institute of Science Grant for Cooperation between the Sciences and Archaeology, in collaboration with Dr. Matthew Ponting (twice)

·       The Ancient Israel Program of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with Prof. Oren Tal (twice)

·       Israel Science Foundation (ISF) grant, in collaboration with Prof. Oren Tal.

Selected Exhibitions at the Israel Museum

·       More than Money (1999) https://museum.imj.org.il/coins/

·       The Coins of Coins – A World Premier (2004), in collaboration with Prof. François de Callatay https://www.imj.org.il/en/exhibitions/coin-coins

·       White Gold – Revealing the World's Earliest Coins (2012), in collaboration with Catharine Lorber and Yaniv Schauer https://museum.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2012/whitegold/index.html

·       Gold from the Sea – Newfound Treasure from Caesarea (2015), in collaboration with Dr. Robert Kool https://museum.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2015/caesarea/

·       Faces of Power – Roman Gold Coins from the Victor Adda Collection (2017), in collaboration with Yaniv Schauer and Dr. Gil Gambash

Virtual Tour: http://www.noasarai.com/IMJ/coins/

Exhibition audio guide: https://museum.imj.org.il/en/audioguides/power/ Category:Biographers