Archaeological and conservation science
Yona Maor, Ph.D
Researcher
Bio
Yonah Maor (PhD 2020, Hebrew University) has been working at the IAA analytical lab since 2018. She started her academic career with a double major in chemistry and art history at Hebrew U, which led to her master's in art conservation at Queens University where she studied the delamination of paint layers in oil and acrylic paintings. Afterwards, she worked at Carnegie Mellon University and studied acidity in paper to improve mass-deacidification in libraries and archives. For her PhD, she returned to Hebrew U and studied parchment degradation and the chemistry of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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At the IAA, Yonah's main research projects are on the plaster technology uncovered at Motza and using phytolith and other microscopic remains to learn about the use of different installations and even neighborhoods at the En Esur excavation. Besides those bigger projects, Yonah uses the advanced analytical tools in the IAA lab to answer questions about archaeological materials of all kinds, from metals, stone, and even old restoration treatments.