Avraham Negev

Negev, surname at birth Eisenberg, was born in the town of Pinsk in Poland, today in Belarus.

[2] He was a commander in the Haganah police force,[clarification needed] and lost his right hand in 1947.

[3] Researching the Nabataean culture was difficult, not least because major sites lay outside his reach due to the Arab–Israeli conflict, such as Petra in Jordan, Hegra (Mada'in Salih) in Saudi Arabia, and Seeia in Syria (Sî' near Kanatha in Jebel Druze).

[3] His excavations in the Negev desert included the Nabataean caravan stops of Oboda (Avdat, 1958–61 and 1975–77), Mampsis (1965–67), and Elusa (1973 and 1979–80).

[3] Negev worked as a professor of archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) between 1964 and 1990.