Prof. Hendrik J. Bruins   hjbruins@bgu.ac.il Tel: 972-8-6596863 Fax: 972-8-6596881 Mailing Address

Education:

• Ph.D., University of Wageningen, The Netherlands, 1986
• M.Sc.(cum laude), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, 1978

Royal Award:

• The Dutch Royal Award Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau was granted in the name of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix by the Deputy Prime-Minister and Minister of Finance, Gerrit Zalm, on 29 October 2006, during a ceremony in The Hague, The Netherlands, for achievements in policy-oriented studies on drought, hazard assessment and contingency planning in drylands, geo-archaeological desert research and innovative chronological studies about the ancient Near East.

Research Interests:

• Human Ecology in Deserts and Drylands.
• Disaster Contingency Planning: Water Security, Food Security, Shelter in Mass Emergencies.
• Drought Hazard Assessment and Time-Series Analysis.
• Chronology of the ancient Near East.
• The Catastrophic Santorini Eruption in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
• Environmental Desert Archaeology, GIS, Ancient Desert Agriculture, Pastoralism and Comparative Bedouin Anthropology.

Current Research Projects:

• Mapping of the Dryland Zones in Israel and Jordan, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification: Temporal and Spatial Variations in Drought Years (with Hemu Kharel Kafle and Sawsan Batarseh).
• Environmental Archaeology of Wadi-Terraces and Ancient Desert Agriculture in the Negev (with Gabriel Ore and various colleagues).
• Human Ecology of the Springs in the Arava Desert: Assessment of Environmental Changes and Human Impact (with Ziv Sherzer).
• Drought and Famine Disasters in China: From Risk Assessment based on Historical Records to Contingency Planning (with Dr. Bu Fengxian, Northwest Sci-Tech University of Agriculture and Forestry, Yangling, China).
• Comparative Analysis of Iron-Age Settlements and Bedouin Encampments in the Central Negev Desert (with Liat Frenkel).
• Chronology in the Deserts and Drylands of the Southern Levant (with Prof. J. van der Plicht, University of Groningen, The Netherlands).
• The Catastrophic Santorini Eruption: Time Marker and Impact Assessment in the Eastern Mediterranean Region and the Near East (with various colleagues).

Selected Publications:

• Bruins, H.J. and Van der Plicht, J. (1996) The Exodus enigma. Nature 382:213-214.
• Bruins, H.J. and Lithwick, H. (Eds.) (1998) The Arid Frontier - Interactive Management of Environment and Development. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 381 p; Reprint, 2004: Springer-Verlag New York, LLC, 404 p (ISBN-13: 9780792342274).
• Bruins, H.J. (2000) Proactive contingency planning vis-a-vis declining water security in the 21st century. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 8:63-72.
• Bruins, H.J. (2000) Drought hazards in Israel and Jordan: policy recommendations for disaster mitigation. In D.A. Wilhite (ed.) Drought: A Global Assessment. Volume II, Routledge, London, Hazards and Disasters Series, Chapter 42, pp. 178-193.
• Bruins, H.J., Carmi, I., Boaretto, E. (Eds.) (2001) Near East Chronology: Archaeology and Environment. Radiocarbon, Volume 43, Number 3.
• Bowman, D., Bruins, H.J. and Van der Plicht, J. (2001) Load structure seismites in the Dead Sea area (Israel): Chronological benchmarking with 14C dating. Radiocarbon 43(3): 1383-1390.
• Bruins, H.J. (2002) Israel: Urban Water Infrastructure in the Desert. In L.W. Mays (ed.) Urban Water Supply Handbook. McGraw-Hill, New York, Chapter 17.
• Bruins, H.J. (2002) People-desert relationships: runoff systems in the Negev highlands for agriculture, pastoralism, shepherding, and landscape architecture. In H. Porat and Y. Gradus (eds.) The Negev: 50 Years of Progress Vardimon Memorial Volume. Joe Alon Center, Kibbutz Lahav & Ariel Publishing House, Jerusalem, pp. 151-158 (Hebrew).
• Bruins, H.J. (2002) Regional Water System Development in Israel and the Middle East. In E. Cabrera, R. Cobacho and J.R. Lund (eds.) Regional Water System Management: Water Conservation, Water Supply and System Integration. Balkema, Lisse, pp. 23-43.
• Bruins, H.J., Van der Plicht, J. and Mazar, A. (2003a) 14C dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age chronology, Pharaohs and Hebrew Kings. Science 300(5617):315-318.
• Bruins, H.J., Van der Plicht, J. and Mazar, A. (2003b) Response to Comment on 14C dates from Tel Rehov: Iron-Age chronology, Pharaohs and Hebrew Kings. Science 302(5645):568c.
• Bruins, H.J. (2003). Man and Landscape in the Negev Highlands: Runoff Systems. Horizons in Geography 57-58:146-158 (Hebrew).
• Bruins, H.J. and Van der Plicht, J. (2003) Assorting and synchronizing archaeological and geological strata with radiocarbon: the Southern Levant in relation to Egypt and Thera. In M. Bietak (ed.) The Synchronization of Civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the 2nd millennium BC. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, pp. 35-42.
• Bruins, H.J., Akonga, J.J., Rutten, M.M.E.M., Kressel, G.M. (2003) Drought Planning and Rainwater Harvesting for Arid-Zone Pastoralists: the Turkana and Maasai (Kenya) and the Negev Bedouin (Israel). NIRP Research for Policy Series 17, The Hague, KIT Publishers, Amsterdam (ISBN 90-6832-682-1).
• Kharel, H. and Bruins, H.J. (2004) Drought and Desertification Hazards in Israel: Time-Series Analysis 1970-2002. In D. Malzahn and T. Plapp (eds.) Disasters and Society From Hazard Assessment to Risk Reduction. Proceedings of the International Conference, University of Karlsruhe. Berlin: Logos Verlag, pp. 91-98.
• Bruins, H.J. (2004) Contingency Planning for Emergency Water Supply in Non-Conventional Times. In L.W. Mays (ed.) Water Supply Systems Security. McGraw-Hill, New York, Chapter 17.
• Bruins, H.J. and Van der Plicht, J. (2005) Desert settlement through the Iron Age: radiocarbon dates from Sinai and the Negev highlands. In T.E. Levy and T. Higham (eds.) The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. Equinox, London, pp. 349-366.
• Bruins, H.J. and Bu, F. (2006) Food Security in China and Contingency Planning: The Significance of Grain Reserves. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 14(3):114-124.
• Bruins, H.J. (2006) Desert Environment and Geoarchaeology of the Wadi Arabah. In P. Bienkowski and K. Galor (eds.) Crossing the Rift: Resources, Routes, Settlement Patterns and Interaction in the Wadi Arabah. Oxbow Books, Oxford, Levant Supplementary Series, 3:29-43.
• Bruins, H.J. (2007) Charcoal radiocarbon dates of Tell el-Dab'a. In M. Bietak and E. Czerny (eds.) The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. - III. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, pp. 65-77.
• Bruins, H.J., MacGillivray, J.A., Synolakis, C.E., Benjamini, C., Keller, J., Kisch, H.J., Kluegel, A. and Van der Plicht, J. (2007) Geoarchaeological tsunami deposits at Palaikastro (Crete) and the Late Minoan IA eruption of Santorini. Journal of Archaeological Science (in press).

Graduate students

• See departmental student list.

BACK TO PERSONNEL