Aaron A. Burke - Near Eastern Languages & Cultures

Aaron A. Burke

Professor, Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies

E-mail: aaburke@ucla.edu Phone: 310-206-7218 Office: 382 Kaplan Hall

Aaron A. Burke is Professor of the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and the Levant in the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Department, and a member of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is co-director of the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project. Between 2011 and 2014, with Martin Peilstöcker he resumed excavations of the New Kingdom fortress on the mound of ancient Jaffa. His research interests include warfare, migration, environmental change, and social change in the ancient Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages. He is author of “Walled Up to Heaven”: The Evolution of Middle Bronze Age Fortification Strategies in the Levant (Eisenbrauns, 2008), and co-editor of several volumes on the history and archaeology of Jaffa.

Education

PhD, Near Eastern Archaeology, University of Chicago (2004)
MA, Near Eastern Archaeology, University of Chicago (2000)
BA, Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies, Wheaton College (1996)

Research

Director, The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project, 2007-Present.

Publications

Books

The History and Archaeology of Jaffa 2

Monumenta Archaeologica

The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, November 2017
Walled Up to Heaven

The Evolution of Middle Bronze Age Fortification Strategies in the Levant

Eisenbrauns, 2008
The History and Archaeology of Jaffa 1

Monumenta Archaeologica 26

The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, June 2011
The Amorites and the Bronze Age Near East: The Making of a Regional Identity.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2021

Edited Volumes

Peilstöcker, Martin, and Aaron A. Burke (editors).2011. The History and Archaeology of Jaffa 1. The Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project 1. Monumenta Archaeologica 26. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Los Angeles.
Peilstöcker, M.; Schefzyk, Jürgen; and Burke, Aaron A., eds. 2013 Jaffa: Tor zum Heiligen Land. Mainz: Nünnerich-Asmus.

Honors & Awards

G. E. Wright Award from American Schools of Oriental Research for best archaeological publication (2011)
Faculty Summer Research Program, UCLA (2010)
Jacob Kaplan Excavations Publication Initiative Vasa Cube Award ,2010. For teaching four Fiat-Lux Freshmen Seminars (2006–2010)
Faculty Career Development Award, UCLA (2007–2008)

Courses

Undergraduate

Fiat Lux Seminar: Ancient Warfare, Modern Concerns (Ancient Near East 19)
Jerusalem the Holy City (Ancient Near East 10W)
First Civilizations (Ancient Near East/Middle Eastern Studies M50A)
Archaeology of Ancient Israel (Ancient Near East 162)

Graduate

Archaeology of the Late Bronze Age Levant and Empire (Ancient Near East 230)
Archaeology of Late Bronze Age Ugarit (Ancient Near East 230)
Archaeology of the Middle Bronze Age and the Amorites in the Levant (Ancient Near East 230)
Archaeology of the Phoenicians (Ancient Near East 230)
Ceramics of the Levant (Ancient Near East 230)
Ebla and the Early Bronze Age (Ancient Near East 230)
History and Archaeology of Warfare in the Ancient Near East (Ancient Near East 230)
Problems in the Archaeology of the Iron Age Levant (Ancient Near East 230)

Affiliations

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Core Faculty, Interdepartmental Archaeology Program
Center for Jewish Studies, UCLA, Affiliated Faculty
Center for Near Eastern Studies
Center for the Study of Religion, UCLA, Affiliated Faculty
International Institute
Urban Humanities Initiative