Responsible for the project
Dieter Vieweger is director of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem and Amman (GPIA) as well as Professor for Old Testament Studies and Biblical Archaeology in Wuppertal. He works on archaeological projects in Near East since 1993.
Responsible for carrying out the project
Jessica Schellig, M.A.
Assistant Director of the GPIA
Jessica Schellig has been involved in the Mount Zion project since 2022, working on the coins of the various areas. After completing her M.A. in “Ancient Cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean” at WWU Münster in January 2023, she joined the DEI as a research assistant in February 2023. At the same time, she is working on a dissertation on the imperial coinage of Akko-Ptolemais.
Dr. Jennifer Zimni
Assistant Director of the GPIA
Jennifer Zimni completed her studies in Prehistory, Early History and Economic Raw Material Archaeology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 2017. Since 2018, she has been working as a research assistant at the DEI and is significantly involved in the Mount Zion Project as an area manager and in the processing of finds and features. She successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Urbanism in Jerusalem from the Iron Age to the Medieval Period at the Example of the DEI Excavations on Mount Zion” at the University of Wuppertal in early 2023.
Patrick Leiverkus, M.A.
Research Assistant at the DEI, Jerusalem
Patrick Leiverkus has been involved in the Mount Zion Project since 2018. As a Mathematician and IT specialist, he is largely responsible for surveys but also for the development of the databases used in the field and in later processing as well as the analysis of the data through geographic information systems (GIS) afterwards. Further he works on a dissertation in the context of the latest achievements in this field.
Ass.-Prof. Dr. Katja Soennecken
Assistant Director of the GPIA
Katja Soennecken has been involved in the Mount Zion Project since 2015 as an area manager and in the later processing of finds and features. She studied Classical Archaeology, Protestant Theology and Jewish Studies in Heidelberg, Berlin, Edinburgh, Münster and Wuppertal. She is currently working on her habilitation on the topic: “‘Sea Peoples’ in the Jordan Valley and Transjordan – material culture, cult and political power beyond the Pentapolis”.
Former staff members
Lee Muller-Crkvenjakov, M.A.
Assistant Director of the GPIA
Lee Muller-Crkvenjakov has been working as a volunteer and part time research assistant at the Zion Mount Project since 2018. In April 2023 she finished her M.A. in Classical Archaeology at the Humboldt University Berlin. From May until November 2023 she has been a Research Assistant at the DEI Jerusalem.
Dr. Michael Würz
Research Assistant at the DEI, Jerusalem
Michael Würz was a Research Assistant at the DEI in 2018-2019 and was responsible for the area management in Area II and III. He received his PhD in 2016 with the topic “Organizing an Urban Life in the Steppe – Water, Agriculture, Townscape and Economy in the Early Islamic Town of Kharab Sayyar” and is currently working at the Technische Universität Berlin.
Dr. Friederike Schöpf
Assistant Director of the GPIA
Friederike Schöpf has been involved in the Mount Zion Project since the first campaign in 2015. She worked as an area manager in Area I until 2019 and processed the ceramic finds of the different areas. In 2022 she successfully defended her dissertation with the topic “Purity without Borders? Purity Concerns in the Early Jewish Diaspora during the Second Temple Period regarding the Case of Tall Zirāʽa, Northern Jordan” at the Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main. Currently she is working at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.
Thank you for your interest in our excavations in Jerusalem.
Students of archaeology, ancient/classical studies or theology
as well as senior volunteers
can apply for our excavations as a matter of principle. Please see the Volunteers page and use the Contact Us link.
