As a prelude to the Easter season, an authority on sacred Christian symbols and archaeological excavations will discuss his work next week at Mississippi State University.
"The Archaeology of Crucifixion" will be the topic of a March 23 address by professor Vassilios Tzaferis at a 7 p.m. public program in Simrall Hall auditorium. MSU's Cobb Institute of Archaeology is sponsoring his campus visit.
Since retiring last year as director of excavations and surveys for the Israel Antiquities Authority, Tzaferis has been a visiting scholar at the Seaver College of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. He remains a member of Israel's Supreme Archaeological Council.
Among his past excavations have been the major biblical sites of Tiberias, Jerusalem, Capernaum, Shepherds Field in Bethlehem, as well as the shrine of Pan at Banias. In addition to fieldwork, he has written extensively about monks and monasteries of the Byzantine period in Israel.
A native of Greece, Tzaferis moved to Jerusalem in 1950, where he completed a doctorate at Hebrew University.
