Barbara Lee Johnson (1943–2022)

Dr. Barbara L. Johnson died on August 27, 2022 from pneumonia, after a ten-month battle with cancer. Born on January 14, 1943 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri to Clyde and Lillian Johnson, she is survived by her two sisters and their families. She had a second ‘family’ in Israel with whom she lived for many years, the Whetstones: Sherry and Vernon and their family.

Figure 1: Barbara L. Johnson, December 2005 (Photo by Patricia Kern).

Barbara often said she was not interested in the typical occupations available for women in the 1960s. She first earned a degree in Political Science from Southeast Missouri State College. Then, with the encouragement of her instructors Geneva Parmley and Dr. E. Otha Wingo, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Art History and Classical Archaeology from the University of Missouri. While there, she met Drs. Saul and Gladys Weinberg. They introduced her to Israel, where she lived full time for thirty years and worked for more than half a century. She received multiple pre- and post-doctoral grants and fellowships: she became an Agora Fellow at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, and a Visiting Scholar at the Kelsey Museum at the University of Michigan. She certainly achieved her goal of experiencing a world far beyond a small Missouri town!

Barbara was interested in just about every aspect of material culture, from the Persian through the Islamic periods, and was well-known in archaeological circles in countries around the eastern Mediterranean. She taught numerous courses in Greek, Roman and Etruscan ceramics, art, sculpture, painting, mythology, and warfare at the University of Missouri, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, and Birzeit University. Her many public lectures in both scholarly (e.g., Tel Aviv University and the French School of Archaeology in Athens) and popular (e.g., Middendorf-Kredell Public Library, O’Fallon, MO) venues attest to her commitment both to interacting with professionals in her field and to educating lay people (particularly youngsters) in the intricacies of her craft in an understandable, relatable, and entertaining manner. Once, while describing a pair of garnet earrings to a fourth-grade class, she suggested that perhaps a husband had given them to his wife. When a child asked, ‘Did he have to pay for them?’ she answered in that tone she had mastered so well, ‘Then, as now, one has to pay for what one gets.’

Early in her career, Barbara was a volunteer on excavations such as those at Tel Anafa, Gezer, and Jalame, and quickly joined the professional teams at Corinth, Somelariya, Khirbet Shema’, Gan Parsi, Halutza-Felousiat-the North Sinai Survey, Tsipori, Ashkelon, Caesarea, and Tel Zayit. She directed salvage excavations at Rafiah on behalf of Ben-Gurion University. At the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Barbara became the Amphora Curator for the Corinth Excavations, and at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, where she had previously served as Director of Field Trips, she was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow and a Senior Fellow from 1988–2000. In 1988 she took up her role as Registrar and Ceramics Specialist for the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, and from 1991 to 1996 she served as Associate Director of the project. Since 1999, Barbara was the Ceramics Coordinator for the Zeitah Excavations (Tel Zayit); her extensive chapter on the post-Iron Age pottery will appear in the forthcoming final report from that site.

Barbara authored many publications (listed below) on pottery and objects from a host of field projects. Her most significant contributions were her pottery analyses published in Gladys Weinberg’s excavations at the Jalame glass workshop (1988), Caesarea Maritima (2008), and the Roman and Late Roman pottery from Ashkelon (2008). Until shortly before her death, she was preparing the pottery chapter for the excavations at Caesarea Maritima Promontory Palace.

Barbara avoided crowds but loved individuals. She loved books, reading, and libraries. During her final stay in the hospital, she gave books from her extensive collection to nurses and others. She loved British mysteries and TV comedies. She loved baseball and especially her St. Louis Cardinals. She was intellectually curious and loved discovering new tidbits of information. She was a unique individual who could make you laugh, cry, or scream—but always feel loved. Her mother had instilled in her three traits: to be kind, to persevere in hard times, and to always, always do your very best. Once a CNN reporter—who was at Ashkelon to cover the discovery of the ‘golden calf’—asked her, ‘How does it feel, now that we’ve made you famous?’ Without missing a step, she strode away and flung the answer over her shoulder: ‘I don’t do famous.’

She didn’t do famous, and she didn’t want a funeral. So raise a glass to her, do a kind deed, hug a family member, learn something new. And if you want to do something in her honour, choose something you are passionate about. On her tombstone in the Cape Girardeau, Missouri cemetery it is written: ‘Nice but not social.’ Be that as it may, Barbara will be missed by her family, friends, and colleagues, and her archaeological achievements stand up for themselves as models upon which to build future research.

PUBLICATIONS (compiled by SRW)

Books

1981 Pottery from Karanis: Excavations of the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

2000 Hammath Tiberias II: Late Synagogues. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society (editor and contributor; M. Dothan, principal author).

2008 Ashkelon 2: Imported Pottery of the Roman and Late Roman Periods. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

2021 Tel Qatra (Southwest). Final Excavation Report (Qedem Dig 1/1). Jerusalem: The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (with O. Gutfeld).

Articles/Chapters

1970 A Glazed Head of a Girl. Muse 4: 39–42.

1979 Corinthian Relief Bowls from Northern Sinai. IEJ 29: 171–174

1985 A Bone Carving of Aphrodite from Felousiat. Beer-Sheva 2 (1985): 1*–5*.‏

1988 The Pottery. Pp. 137–226 in G.D. Weinberg ed. Excavations at Jalame: Site of a Glass Factory in Late Roman Palestine. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press.

1995 Ashkelon: Wine Emporium of the Holy Land. Pp. 95–109 in S. Gitin ed. Recent Excavations in Israel. A View to the West. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. (with L.E. Stager).

2000 Pottery. Pp. 54–74 in Hammath Tiberias II: Late Synagogues. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

 Lamps. Pp. 75–83 in Hammath Tiberias II: Late Synagogues. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

 Small Finds. Pp. 84–92 in Hammath Tiberias II: Late Synagogues. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

2001 Attic Pottery. P. 188 in A. Mazar and N. Panitz-Cohen, Timnah (Batash) II (Qedem 42). Jerusalem: Hebrew University.

2006 The Hellenistic to Early Islamic Period Pottery. Pp. 523–590 in A. Mazar, Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean 1989–1996 I: From the Late Bronze Age IIB to the Medieval Period (Beth-Shean Valley Archaeological Project Publication 1). Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 Clay, Stone, and Metal Objects from the Hellenistic to the Early Islamic Period. Pp. 664–665 in A. Mazar, Excavations at Tel Beth-Shean 1989–1996 I: From the Late Bronze Age IIB to the Medieval Period (Beth-Shean Valley Archaeological Project Publication 1). Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

2007 The Pottery from the Roman Bathhouse (Area E) and Metzad 'Arugot (Area B). Pp. 428–454 in Y. Hirschfeld, En-Gedi Excavations II: 1996–2002. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University.

2008 Layer II: Hellenistic to Islamic Remains. Pp. 314–316 in Y. Garfinkel and D. Dag, Neolithic Ashkelon (Qedem 47) Jerusalem: Hebrew University.

 The Pottery. Pp. 13–206 in Y. Patrich, Archaeological Excavations at Caesarea Maritima: Areas CC, KK and NN. Final Reports I: The Objects. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.

 The Pottery in Grid 38 Bathhouse. Pp. 463–470 in Byzantine-period Wine Jars and their Distribution. Pp. 479–487 in L.E. Stager, J.D. Schloen and D.M. Master, Ashkelon 1: Introduction and Overview (1985–2006). Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns (with L.E. Stager).

2021 Tel Qatra (Southwest): The Pottery. Pp. 2–8 in O. Gutfeld and B. Johnson, Tel Qatra (Southwest). Final Excavation Report (Qedem Dig 1/1). Jerusalem: The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.