[2] He has organized and lectured in over 200 local and international conferences worldwide[3] and has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, grants, and scholarships,[4] including the EMET Prize in the field of Archaeology (2022).

[5] In 2024, he received an "honorary doctorate" from the University of Zurich for his research on the history and archeology of Israel and Judah during the biblical period.6 Oded Lipschits was born in Jerusalem in 1963, and served in the IDF between 1981 and 1985 (in the military reserve until 2008) and ultimately discharged with the rank of major.

[1] In 1998 Lipschits became a faculty member and in 2002 he received the title of Senior Lecturer with tenure from the Department of Jewish History, Tel Aviv University.

[6] The primary focus of Lipschits' research is the Southern Levant, and the land of Judah in the Iron Age, Persian, Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods.

This stands in contrast to the understanding of Jewish history as divided into First and Second Temple periods, with a settlement and cultural "gap" in the mid-6th century, explained by the Biblical narrative of the Babylonian exile.

[1] Although his revolutionary thesis was not accepted by all scholars, his critics have praised the book for its extent, organization and detail, citing it as one of the most comprehensive works on the subject to date, that is important and worthy of study.

[1] Together with David S. Vanderhooft of Boston University, Lipschits has pioneered a comprehensive study of the Judean stamp seals during the Persian rule with consideration to their use as a chronological marker and their importance in illuminating the economy of Judah in that period.

Tel Azekah is located in the Shfela and understood as multi-period site with occupational levels that span the Early Bronze Age to the Roman period.