Avraham Negev

Avraham Negev was born in 1923 in Pinsk

Avraham Negev was born Avraham Eisenberg in 1923 in Pinsk, then in Poland and today in Belarus. He moved to the Land of Israel in 1934 and lived in Tel Aviv and at Kibbutz Givat HaShlosha. After finishing high school at the Shalva Gymnasium, he joined Kibbutz Revivim and was among those who settled the Negev in 1943.

In 1947 he married the poet Rachel Negev, and they had 2 daughters, Ayelet and Anat. He served as a commander in the Haganah and lost his right hand after being wounded. He was later sent on an educational mission to South America.

In 1953 he began studying archaeology and geography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he later earned a doctorate. He taught classical archaeology there and became a professor.

Negev led excavations at the Nabataean sites of Avdat, Mampsis and Elusa in the Negev, and also at Caesarea and Susiya. Conflict kept him from major Nabataean sites such as Petra. He edited the Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, first published in 1972.

He died in 2004 and was buried at Kibbutz Revivim.