Texas A&M Center for Heritage Conservation Goes to Mount Zion, Jerusalem

Center for Heritage Conservation
Texas A&M University goes to Mount Zion, Jerusalem

Key Participants

Dr. Shimon Gibson
Shimon Gibson was recently appointed as a Professional Fellow of the CHC on a 3 year program to bring the Mount Zion project into Texas A&M. Shimon Gibson is a British-born archaeologist working in Jerusalem, where he is currently a Senior Associate Fellow at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research. He undertook his academic studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University College, London, where he also completed his PhD on Landscape Archaeology in the southern Levant. During the past twenty years he has conducted numerous excavations and field surveys in different parts of Israel. Between 1989-1995 he undertook research and cataloguing in the archives of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London. He was the head of the Research and Scientific Reports Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority from 1995 to 1999.
Since then he has dedicated himself to a number of major excavation projects, notably at Suba and Mount Zion. Shimon is the author of more than one hundred research articles on a variety of subjects, and for more than two decades served as the Chief Editor of the archaeological journal "Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society" published in London. He was also one of the Divisional Editors of the new edition of the "Encyclopedia Judaica" published in 2007. He is the co-author of two scientific monographs on the antiquities of Jerusalem (on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and on the Temple Mount), and has edited the "Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land" (New York, 2000) and "The Illustrated Dictionary and Concordance of the Bible" (New York 2005). His book of nineteenth-century photographs of Jerusalem was published in the States by Eisenbrauns (2003). A book on his archaeological work in the Cave of John the Baptist was published by Random House and Doubleday in 2004. His book entitled "Flights into Biblical Archaeology" (Albatross, 2007) was published with the Israel Antiquities Authority. His recent book on the archaeology of first century Jerusalem "The Final Days of Jesus: The Archaeological Evidence" has recently appeared published by Harper Collins.
Dr. Jessie Pincus
Jessie Pincus is based in the Department of Construction Science in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M, having recently completed her doctoral thesis at Bar Ilan University in Israel, where she spent 2003 - 2009 focusing on geoarchaeological support projects. Her dissertation is entitled "Geoarchaeological Data Acquisition and Modeling with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) of Ancient Agricultural Terraced Fields in the Negev and Tell es-Safi/Gath". She currently teaches a course in Soils for Construction and Foundations at Texas A&M, where she is also working as a postdoctoral researcher.
Her undergraduate work was begun at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio and completed at the University of Miami in Florida. Her doctoral work was concentrated on geoarchaeological data acquisition and modeling using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for strategic planning and decision support. She has been working since 2005 at several sites in the Southern Levant, with an emphasis on rough terrain GPR with archaeological support application, as well as interfacing of results in a GIS database model. Her work has been under the supervision of Professor Aren Maeir and Dr. Moti Haiman of The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Professor Hanoch Lavee of the Department of Geography, Bar-Ilan University, and Professor Ben K. Sternberg, Ph.D., Director of the Laboratory for Advanced Subsurface Imaging, University of Arizona.
In addition to her current doctoral work, Jessie has completed numerous projects and archaeogeophysical surveys throughout Israel. These sites include Kiryat Anavim Cemetery and Tel Mond Cemetery, forensics projects in support of the Israel Defense Forces' MIA department; and Hazor Archaeological Project, Tell es-Safi/Philistine Gath, City of David Excavations, Neolithic Sha'ar HaGolan Archaeological Project, and Givat Sher archaeological projects to name a few. Current projects include the Mount Zion Excavations, the Horns of Hittin, the ancient city of Bethsaida, and select sites in Jerusalem and the biblical city of Nazareth. She has published portions of her work in several journals and research editions. Her doctoral work has focused on advanced data modeling of numerous archaeological, geological, geophysical, hydrological and climatic datasets, including data acquisition in the Negev desert at her 5 research sites of Avdat, Nizzana, Shivta, the Yatir Forest, and Tell es-Safi/Gath. She brings specialized experience in rough-terrain situations where on-site innovation allows her to produce useful reports for both the researchers and professionals in the field. She has also worked at several sites in the USA, including the Miami Circle in Florida, one of the few Prehistoric architectural structure remains in the country, the ancient Ortona canals in Central Florida, and Little Salt Springs on the west coast of Florida.

Dr. Sarel Lavy
Sarel Lavy obtained his doctoral degree in 2006 in Civil and Environmental Engineering (Construction Management), at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel. His doctoral thesis is titled "Integrated Facility Management and its Implementation to Hospitals in Israel", under the academic supervision of Dr. Igal M. Shohet. Currently he holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University, and is Associate Director of the CRS Center for Leadership and Management in the Design and Construction Industry.
Sarel's expertise is in facility management, paying attention to how buildings change over the course of time. He brings to the Mount Zion project an interest in how ancient structures withstood time dependent upon the different types of materials that were used, and a modern understanding of building life-cycles as compared to ancient sites. This gives students studying construction science the opportunity to see how things they build today might be seen over time.
Dr. Lavy oversees the urban planning component of the Mount Zion Project, lending his expertise towards building ancient sites into tourist sites, along with providing the adminstrative interface to city planning officials.

Charles E. D. Robinson
Charles E. D. Robinson - Friend, Associate Researcher and Consultant to the CHC, Mt. Zion Project Development
Charles E. D. Robinson is a lifelong resident of Houston, Texas and has been married to Nancy Ellsworth Robinson for thirty-two years - together they have two grown children. A 1976 business school graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Charles has been active in the oil and gas exploration business for over thirty years and is currently pursuing several projects in the energy field as an independent. He is the son of Charles L. Robinson (1921-2009), a pioneer in the geophysical contracting business serving the oil and gas exploration sector. Charles has developed a keen interest in the archaeological excavations of the Southern Levant, the Holy Land and Jerusalem, along with techniques for enhancing archaeological exploration. One such technology is Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a subsurface geophysical imaging technology which has been applied with great success in recent years at Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, and has helped to advance the science of archaeology in general. On a visit to Jerusalem in June of 2009, and through his association and friendship with Michael S. Pincus, Charles was introduced to Dr. Jessie Pincus and Dr. Shimon Gibson.
Charles E. D. Robinson's support of the Texas A&M University CHC Mount Zion Project, honors the life of his father, Charles L. Robinson (1921-2009), a pioneer in the geophysical contracting business serving the oil and gas industry, who made the challenging transition from analog to digital recording and processing of seismic data. As a young officer, Mr. Robinson helped take the Houston based Robert H. Ray Geophysical Company to the Middle East and North Africa, negotiating and managing numerous geophysical surveys during the 1950's and 1960's. He later formed his own geophysical company, conducting surveys all over the world, including numerous marine surveys and the North Slope of Alaska at Prudhoe Bay. Mr. Robinson graduated from the USMA at West Point, Class of 1946, and pursued a life-long passion for applied physics and geophysics. In honor of his father, Charles seeks to support the advancement of education and science in the field of archaeology and related work, including raising public awareness and participation. The CHC Mount Zion Project is just such a multi-disciplined endeavor, where advanced survey technology is being used, including Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a geophysical tool for acquiring subsurface survey data, building 3-D models and identifying anomalies - all in an effort to "see" what's beneath the ground in advance of actual excavation.
Charles explains:
"I met Dr. Jessie Pincus and Dr. Shimon Gibson for the first time at Jerusalem in June of 2009, and was given an orientation to the project on the ground. Through my friendship with Michael S. Pincus, I was already familiar with Jessie's work with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a geophysical imaging technique being used to conduct subsurface 3D surveys at archaeological sites. I decided at that time, with Jessie already at the university doing her post doctoral, it would be great to bring Shimon and the whole Mount Zion project to Texas A&M, so I began working with Michael Pincus to help make that happen. I believed that the university not only stood to gain, but had much to offer in a variety of disciplines. I also knew that through a "Texas-Israel" exchange and the relationships developed, the university, its students and faculty, Texas and Israel would all be enriched. On a personal note, a significant part of my interest and energy to help bring the Mount Zion archaeological project to Texas A&M and get it established with the CHC, is to honor my father, Charles L. Robinson (1921-2009). Dad was a pioneer in the geophysical contracting business who made the challenging transition from analog to digital in conducting seismic surveys in the oil and gas industry. He shot seismic all over the world, including North Africa and the Middle East. He would have been keenly interested in the archaeological projects being developed in Jerusalem, the problems being tackled and the technology being applied, especially GPR. I share many of my father's interests and will enjoy knowing that this particular work would have engaged and gratified him on many levels."

Michael S. Pincus
Michael S. Pincus is an Information Technology executive, strategist, and analyst, who has given professional counsel to government, defense, and commercial enterprises in many fields over the last 25 years. Operating through his US company Mnemotrix Systems, Inc., begun in 1986 as a technology developer and integrator for Advanced Information Systems applications, he provides custom intelligent agent database, and information mining, fusion and analysis services hosted and distributed over the Internet to clients world-wide. His work includes advanced methods in data mining for retrieving and correlating text and images using simple concepts and ideas.
In 2005, after moving to Israel, he established Mnemotrix Israel, Ltd., to to continue delivering these information services and to create new innovations in intelligent database design, geographic information systems utilizing spatial analysis methods and other unique technology. In 2006 working with his partner Ardyn Halter in Israel, they established Imaginative Access Ltd, an Israeli company focused on building and hosting Smart Art Image, Film/Animation and Sound library applications using "Imaginative Access" technology for museums and private collections worldwide.
Mr. Pincus has a background of many years of hands-on experience in high performance information processing and analysis. Having founded Thunderstone Software/Expansion Programs International, Inc. in 1981, which became a world leader in advanced information technology and builders of Ebay and Dogpile, he went on to design and implement advanced text application systems and computing applications for NASA, the Dept of Agriculture, the Dept of Energy, the Dept of Defense and other branches of the U.S. Government, for private corporations and educational institutions worldwide, and contributed to much of the early R&D in Artificial Intelligence in the field of Information Mining and Data Fusion.
Beginning in 2005, Mr. Pincus, operating through Mnemotrix Israel, Ltd., in his capacity as a research associate of Bar Ilan University, Martin Szusz Dept of Land of Israel Studies, built and hosts a Smart GIS (Geographical Information System) for Israel's ADASR (Ancient Desert Agriculture Systems Revived) program, for and in association with the Jewish National Fund, Israel Antiquities Authority, the University of Arizona's IALC and the University of New Mexico's prestigious Earth Data Analysis Center (EDAC). This system, built and accessible through the Internet for this project, represents a paradigm shift in Smart Geo-Referencing and dynamic spatial analysis capability as it applies to GIS. In addition, Mr. Pincus built and hosts for the Martin Szusz Dept of Land of Israel Studies an advanced technology Intelligent Research Database of related archaeological, geological and agricultural material.
In concourse with advanced information systems technologies, Mnemotrix Israel, Ltd. also delivers geophysical support services to select clients including Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data acquisition and 3D processing, for integration into Smart GIS applications.
Mr. Pincus's career spans over twenty-five years working with world class CEO's,scientists, and industry professionals to improve their strategic analysis skills, effectiveness, and competitive advantage. Working with Charles Robinson, they are together committed to using their life experience to further the Mount Zion project in coordination with the CHC at Texas A&M.