Avraham Biran

Avraham Biran was born in 1909 in Petah Tikva

Avraham Bergman, later Biran, was born in Petah Tikva in 1909 to one of the founding families of Rosh Pina. He spent his childhood in Egypt, where his father ran a farm. After his father died, he returned and lived with his grandparents.

He studied at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa and then at the David Yellin college in Jerusalem, and he taught at the Reali school from 1928 to 1930. In 1931 he began studying under William F. Albright at Johns Hopkins University. He earned an M.A. in 1934 and a PhD in 1935.

He returned to Jerusalem in 1935 as a fellow of the American Schools of Oriental Research and joined digs in the region. He later served as a district officer, as deputy military governor of Jerusalem, and from 1955 as Israel's consul general in Los Angeles. In 1958 he became head of the armistice department at the Foreign Ministry.

From 1961 to 1974 he headed the Department of Antiquities and Museums. After the Six-Day War he started archaeological surveys in the West Bank, and he was active in founding the Israel Museum. From 1974 he headed the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at Hebrew Union College.

He led the excavations at Tel Dan from 1966 to 1999. He received the Israel Prize in 2002 and died in Jerusalem in 2008.