Matthew J. Suriano
Associate Professor, Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and Center for Jewish Studies
Classics
1126A Taliaferro Hall
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Education
Ph.D., Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles
Matthew Suriano specializes in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, ancient Near Eastern religions, Northwest Semitic epigraphy, and the archaeology of the Levant. His first book The Politics of Dead Kings: Dynastic Ancestors in the Book of Kings and Ancient Israel (Mohr Siebeck, 2010) examined the motifs used to describe a king's death. His recent book, A History of Death in the Hebrew Bible (Oxford University Press, 2018), which won ASOR's Frank Moore Cross Award, looks more broadly at death and burial in biblical literature. His current projects includes a study of Iron Age monolithic-tombs in Jerusalem, MMO:VAS, a new edition of Hebrew funerary inscriptions from Iron Age Judah for the Society of Biblical Literature's series Writings from the Ancient World (with Jacqueline Vayntrub), and a project on the Book of Kings.
Publications
"Rediscovering the Royal Steward Inscription": A Photographic Study
The Royal Steward Inscription is one of the more famous artifacts in biblical archaeology
Author/Lead: Matthew J. SurianoThe Royal Steward Inscription is one of the more famous artifacts in biblical archaeology, but its original context and setting is less-known due to the circumstances following Charles Clermont-Ganneau’s discovery in 1870.
The Samaria Ostraca" and "Barley Ostracon. in Context of Scripture.
The Samaria Ostraca" and "Barley Ostracon"
Author/Lead: Matthew J. Suriano“Review of Dever, W.G. Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2017.” (vol. 73, pp. 203–204).
Review of Dever, W.G. Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah.
Author/Lead: Matthew J. Suriano“Death and Burial in Iron Age Jerusalem: A View from the Silwan Necropolis.” (vol. Routledge Handbook on Jerusalem, pp. 260–268). New York: Routledge.
Death and Burial in Iron Age Jerusalem
Author/Lead: Matthew J. Suriano“No Rest for the Dead: The Reversal of Death in Ezekiel's Valley of Dry Bones.” (vol. Deathless Hopes: Reinventions of Afterlife and Eschatological Beliefs, pp. 65-80). Zurich: Lit Verlag.
The Reversal of Death in Ezekiel's Valley of Dry Bones
Author/Lead: Matthew J. SurianoThe Reversal of Death in Ezekiel's Valley of Dry Bones
“Remembering Absalom’s Death in 2 Samuel 18–19: History, Memory, and Inscription.”. Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel(7), 172–200.
Remembering Absalom’s Death
Author/Lead: Matthew J. SurianoRemembering Absalom’s Death