Benyamin Storchan and Josef Mario Briffa

Join us for Benyamin Storchan and Josef Briffa's lecture, "Our Life in Light: Ancient Lamps, Faith, and Festivals of Illumination" at 17:00 IST|10:00 EST on Dec 15, 2025, with a post-lecture reception.

Webinar ID:
841 6313 9145

Passcode:
737296

Webinar Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84163139145?pwd=G4CQw25uLghJj3J1cp06FtvVJ8DLdp.1

Abstract:
This special Hanukkah and Christmas holiday lecture explores the archaeology and symbolism of ancient lighting in the Holy Land. Oil lamps served as the primary source of artificial illumination throughout antiquity, and their chronology and technological development offer crucial insights into material culture from the Bronze Age through the Islamic period. The lecture will examine how light and lighting functioned not only as practical necessities but also as powerful theological symbols within Judaism and Christianity—rooted in scripture, expressed through liturgical cycles, and woven into the lifecycle. In addition to the lectures, we with present a small exhibition of oil lamps from the Pontifical Biblical Institute Museum collection to illuminate the evolution of this technology across millennia.

Speaker Bios:
Benyamin Storchan is a research excavation archaeologist for the Jerusalem Region of the Israel Antiquities Authority. He is currently a PhD candidate at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, writing a dissertation on the metamorphosis of Byzantine churches in the Holy Land during the early Islamic Period. Storchan has directed several large-scale excavations, including the Glorious Martyr Excavation Project, Pre- and Proto-historic settlements at Eshta’ol, and landscape archaeology projects near Bet Shemesh. Storchan has researched oil lamp production in the late Roman and Byzantine-early Islamic periods.

Rev. Prof Josef Mario Briffa SJ, is a Roman Catholic priest and archaeologist. He is associate Professor at the Biblical Faculty of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (part of the Pontifical Gregorian University), teaching archaeology, geography, and ancient history of the Biblical world. He is also Director of Academic Programmes, and Curator of Museum and archaeological collection at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem. He is active in the field in Israel and is part of the team of the Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition since 2013.

You may also like the following events from W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research:

• Next Wednesday, 3rd December, 05:00 pm, Albright Lecture: Susan Kennedy-Arenz - The Legacy of Hansen House in Jerusalem in Jerusalem
• Next month, 10th December, 05:00 pm, Lecture: Shulamit Miller - The Rise of Christianity in Galilee: A Perspective from the Jewish Cities in Jerusalem
• Next month, 17th December, 05:00 pm, Albright Lecture: James Fraser - Albright 2025: The Year in Review in Jerusalem

Also check out other Workshops in Jerusalem, Virtual events in Jerusalem, Festivals in Jerusalem.