# Trude Dothan

Trude Dothan (Hebrew: טרודה דותן‎; 12 October 1922 – 28 January 2016) was a professor of archaeology at the Hebrew University, who focused on the Late Bronze and Iron Ages in the region, in particular in Philistine culture. Winner of the Israel Prize in Archaeology Research for the year 1998.

## Biography

Trude Krakauer (later Dothan), was born in Vienna, the daughter of Grete Wolf Krakauer (née Wolf, 1890–1970), a painter, and Leopold Krakuer, an architect and artist who designed several Bauhaus-style buildings for Jerusalem's "garden city" of Rehavia. In 1924 she immigrated with her parents to Israel, at the time Mandatory Palestine, and settled in Jerusalem, where they joined the local community of intellectuals and artists, many of them German speakers. She attended the Rehavia Gymnasium for her high school education, and then studied archeology at the Hebrew University at Mount Scopus. Her first excavation was at Tel Beit Yarah (Khirbet Karak). After serving in the IDF during the War of Independence, she completed her M.A. thesis in 1950 on the pottery at Tel Beit Yerah, which she did under the guidance of Elazar Lipa Soknik. Another excavation she was involved in at that time was at Tell Qasile, where she first encountered Philistine culture The preoccupation with the Philistines and their relationship with ancient people accompanied her during her academic work.
Dotan continued her studies and studied at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and the Archaeological Institute at the University of London, where she met Prof. Kathleen Kenyon who influenced her. She received a doctorate from the Hebrew University in 1961. The topic of the doctoral thesis was: "Philistine and Egyptian ceramics in the Land of Israel during the Early Iron Age" (the period corresponding to the biblical period, the settlement period), and it was done under the guidance of Professor Benjamin Mazar. Dotan joined the staff of the Archaeological Institute of the Hebrew University in 1962, where she worked until her retirement in 1992. In 1974 she was appointed full professor. In 1977 she was appointed head of the Lauterman Chair for Philistine Archaeology, between 1977-1982 she headed the Berman Center of Biblical Archaeology, and in 1985 she was appointed head of the Elazar Lipa Soknik Chair. She served as a guest lecturer and on sabbaticals at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New York University, Harvard University, Columbia University and Brown University.
The excavations she was involved in were at Tel Hazor (in 1952 and between the years 1955-1960) with Yigal Yedin and at Ein Gedi with Benjamin Mazar in 1961-1962. Between the years 1971-1972 she excavated with Amnon Ben-Tor in Athienou, Cyprus. Between the years 1971-1982, she excavated at Deir al-Balah, where a large Canaanite-Egyptian fort and a large number of human-like coffins (anthropoid) were discovered. In the years 1981 to 1996, with Seymour Gitin, she excavated Tel Makna (Ekron), which was discovered as an industrialized and planned city from the Philistine culture.
In 1991, she won the Parshia Shimel Award for her contribution to the archaeology of the Land of Israel, from the Israel Museum. In 1998, Dothan was awarded the Israel Prize in Archaeology. Since 1999, an annual series of lectures named after Truda Dotan has been held under the auspices of the Albright Institute for Archaeology and in collaboration between the Hebrew University and Al-Quds University. In 2003 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Hebrew Union College. Her private collection of books is now in the Lanier Theological Library, Houston, Texas.
In 1951 she married Moshe Dothan (1919–1999), a fellow archaeologist with whom she shared interest in biblical archaeology and particularly the Philistine culture. They had two children together, one of them Dan was vocalist for the Israeli rock and new wave band HaClique. She died on 28 January 2016, aged 93.

## Awards and recognition

* 1991 – Percia Schimmel Award in archaeology, awarded by the Israel Museum.
* 1998 – Israel Prize, for archaeology.
* 2003 – an honorary PhD from the Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem.

## Published works

* The Philistines and Their Material Culture, 1982
* People of the Sea: Search for the Philistines (with Moshe Dothan), 1992
* Deir el-Balah: Uncovering an Egyptian Outpost in Canaan from the Time of the Exodus