Joseph Naveh (Hebrew: <bdo dir="ltr"><bdi class="Hebr hebrew" dir="rtl" lang="he-Hebr" style="unicode-bidi:isolate;font-style:normal">ÃÂÃÂáã àÃÂÃÂ</bdi></bdo>; January 21, 1928 â November 21, 2011) was an Israeli linguist, paleographer, epigraphist, and archaeologist. He was a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a prominent scholar in the field of West Semitic scripts and ancient inscriptions.
Naveh was born into a Jewish family in Mukachevo, Czechoslovakia, a city with a complex history of changing sovereignties. At the time of his birth, the city was under Czechoslovak administration, but reverted to Hungarian control in 1938.
He attended a Hebrew school in Mukachevo and later immigrated to Mandatory Palestine after World War II. In 1948, he joined the Israel Defense Forces.
He studied Bible, Jewish history, and archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
From 1955 to 1971, Naveh worked at the Israel Department of Antiquities, serving as district archaeologist from 1958. He participated in excavations at sites such as En Gedi and Tel Miqne, which he identified with biblical Ekron. In 1960, he led excavations at Mesad Hashavyahu, where he discovered Hebrew ostraca from the reign of King Josiah.
In the 1960s, he focused increasingly on West Semitic epigraphy and palaeography. He earned his doctorate with a dissertation titled The Development of the Aramaic Script (published 1970). From 1971 to 1991, he taught in the Department of Ancient Semitic Languages at the Hebrew University. He continued publishing after retirement.
Naveh specialized in deciphering and interpreting inscriptions in Aramaic, Phoenician, and Paleo-Hebrew. His comparative studies linked scripts to broader historical and cultural developments. He also contributed to the understanding of the evolution of the Greek alphabet and exposed several modern forgeries of ancient inscriptions.
He was an active member of the Israel Exploration Society, serving on its council and as honorary member. Since 1969, he was on the editorial board of the Israel Exploration Journal. In 1994, he was elected to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Naveh's contributions to Semitic palaeography remain foundational. His works are widely cited in studies of Semitic linguistics, epigraphy, and the archaeology of the ancient Near East.