Yigael Yadin was born son of Archaeologist Eliezer Sukenik, in Jerusalem in 1917.
In 1933 Yigael joined the Haganah. Later on, following the establishment of the State, Yigael served as the Second Chief of Staff on the Israel Defense Force (IDF) from 1949 to 1952. Yadin left the army in 1952 to study archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he earned his Ph.D. in 1955. He then created the Yadin Doctoral Project which focused on the research of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The following year he was awarded the Israel Prize in Jewish Studies for his project accomplishment. In 1970, Yadin was declared head of the Institute of Archeology at Hebrew University.
But his achievements extended even further. Between the 1950s and 60s, Yadin went on several excavations ranging from the caves of the Judean Desert and Hazor to Masada and Meggido. He employed thousands of volunteers from Israel and abroad to accompany him on his vast archeological digs. Through his efforts of bringing outsiders to these digs, he was able to further expand the field, thus making different places of ancient Israel, like the Canaanite and First Temple projects more tangible and more historic.
Yadin was curious and motivated, what made Yadin different from other Archaeologists is that he made archaeology accessible to the public.
He continued to bolster his activities by publishing works which are very noted and recognized among the anthropology community. But Yadin didn’t just document his work, he made sense of it in a cultural context and realized that it would pave the way to making history more real.
In 1967 Yadin changed his career path once again to serve as Military Advisor to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. He remained in the Military until his formation of a new political party in 1976 called The Democratic Movement for Change. In 1977, the new party won15 seats and joined the Likud Government. But The Democratic Movement for Change would break apart two years later since little was accomplished; although Yadin continued to stay in politics as Deputy Prime Minister.
Yadin retired in 1981 to return to his archaeological research but died in 1984.
References
Edited by: Vermes, Geza & Neusner, Jacob. "Essays in Honor of Yigael Yadin," Allenheld, Osmun & Co., 1983
Jewish Library, www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/yadin.html, (2004)
Written By: Travis Hager, 2004
Edited By: Holly Schwichtenberg, 2006