YEIVIN, SHEMUEL

YEIVIN, SHEMUEL (1896–1982), Israeli archaeologist. Born in Odessa, he studied at the Herzlia Gymnasium in Tel Aviv and the universities of London and Berlin, specializing in Egyptology and Semitic philology. He took part in the excavations at Luxor (1924) and Beth-Shean (1924–28) and in the University of Michigan expedition to Seleucia in Iraq (1929–37). He was co-director with J. Krause-Marquet of the excavations at Ai (1933). He was a member of the Hebrew Language Committee (1935–42); chairman of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society (1944–46); chief Hebrew translator for the British Mandatory government of Palestine (1944–48); director of the Department of Antiquities in Israel (1948–61); secretary and then editor of the Encyclopaedia Biblica; professor of biblical history and archaeology at Tel Aviv University; and member of the Hebrew Language Academy. In 1968 he received the Israel Prize for Jewish studies. His publications include Toledot ha-Ketav ha-Ivri (1939), Milḥamot Bar Kokhva (1946), and Kadmoniyyot Arẓenu (1955), an archaeological handbook written jointly with M. Avi-Yonah. (Michael Avi-Yonah)