Roi Porat

Roi Porat, currently pursuing a PhD in archaeology, joined the Herodium Expedition in 2006. He began his archaeological studies in 1997 at Bar Ilan University, where he received his BA in 2003, and then moved on to the Hebrew University, where he finished an MA in 2006. From 1996-1997, he worked in a conservation/restoration team of the Israel Antiquities Authority and from 2001 – 2006 was involved in the survey and excavation of caves in the Judean Desert. Since 2006, he has worked as field supervisor and main coordinator of Ehud Netzer’s Herodium project, and participated in the discovery of Herod’s tomb and private theatre. He is still involved in survey and excavation of the Judean Desert caves and edited “Refuge Caves of the Bar Kokhba Revolt ” Vol. II (2009; Hebrew) with Hanan Eshel.

CV and publications

Yakov Kalman

Yakov Kalman, agriculturalist and archaeologist, started his archaeology career in the early 1970’s surveying and excavating various sites in the Negev Highlands as part of the emergency project prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. In the early 1990’s, he spent four years in the Arava, excavating at Ein Hazeva for the Israel Antiquities Authority.
In 1995, he joined Prof. Netzer at Masada, was field supervisor at Jericho in 1998-2000, and since 1997 has worked as field supervisor at Herodium, first at Lower Herodium, and since 2005 on the mount’s eastern slope, where he helped exposing Herod’s tomb and private theatre. He has also worked as co-director and field supervisor at Horkania in the Judean Desert, and at Bet Loya in the Lachish area (both directed by Oren Gutfeld). He is currently an MA student in archaeology at the Hebrew University.

Rachel Chachy-Laureys

Rachel Chachy-Laureys, architect and archaeologist, has over 20 years’ experience in archaeology. She studied architecture (MA) in Antwerp from 1985-1990, and archaeology at Leuven (Belgium) from 1991-1995, when she excavated for three consecutive seasons (1992-1994) at Tel Yizreel in northern Israel, and another three seasons of three months each at Tel Beydar in Syria (1993-1995), where she was an area supervisor. In 1995, she participated briefly at excavations at Mezad Ateret (Jordan Valley) with Prof. Roni Ellenblum and since the end of 1995 she has been living in Israel.
In 1996, she took part in a large salvage excavation directed by Oren Gutfeld in Ramleh, and immediately afterwards began working with Ehud Netzer, with whom she has worked continuously since then. Since 1997 she has been architect/surveyor of the Herodium excavations, also at the Jericho excavations in 1999-2000. She surveyed the Sepphoris synagogue under Dr. Zeev Weiss, and reconstructed Herod’s tomb at Herodium. Besides being co-author with Ehud Netzer and coordinator of most of the publications in the “Hasmonean and Herodian Palaces at Jericho, Final Reports,” series, she assisted with the research and writing of “Nabatäishe Architektur” and “Herod the Great Builder.” She is currently the architect/surveyor of the Herodium Expedition and the coordinator and co-author of the forthcoming volumes in the Herodium Final Report Series.