Ruth Amiran

Ruth Amiran was born in 1914 in Yavne'el

Ruth Amiran was born Ruth Brandstetter in 1914 in the moshava Yavne'el in the Galilee. Her father Yehezkel had come from Tarnów in Galicia in 1908, and he married her mother Devora in 1913.

She finished the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa in 1933 and studied archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, completing her studies in 1939. As a student she dug at et-Tell under Judith Marquet-Krause.

She began as an antiquities inspector in the north and took part in a dig at Jaffa in 1948. She later excavated at Susita, led work in Area B at Tel Hazor from 1955 to 1957, and from 1962 uncovered the Canaanite city at Tel Arad over 18 seasons. She also dug at the Tower of David in 1968 and 1969 and in the Uvda Valley in 1979.

Her book on the ancient pottery of the Land of Israel became a standard reference in the field. She was married to the geographer David Amiran, and the couple had no children. She died in 2005.