ORANGE SLICES
UNC Professor Jodi Magness. Photo by Jim Haberman.
It was just another day for Jodi Magness: breakfast with her husband, a walk around her Chapel Hill neighborhood, and then a call from Austria. A documentary producer wanted to meet her in Jerusalem to discuss the Shroud of Turin — a linen cloth bearing the image of a man some believe to be Jesus Christ. For the average person, this might require a quick internet search to recall what the Shroud even is. For Magness, it was simply one of many calls from experts worldwide seeking her expertise on Jesus and ancient Jerusalem.
As the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 2002, Magness has established herself as a preeminent authority on the historical landscapes of modern Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories from the time of Jesus through the tenth century.
Professor Jodi Magness, bottom left, with current and former UNC students at the Huqoq excavations in Israel in 2023.
“This film will tell the story of the shroud — and compare myths surrounding it with serious scientific evidence while addressing the problem of pseudo-science,” the producer, Florian Hoellerl, explained. “It will travel through centuries and millennia to check the plausibility of different myths and provide knowledge about various epochs of history, resembling a true-crime documentary with on-site investigations.”
For most scholars, participating in such a high-profile project would be extraordinary. For Magness, it’s just another chapter in her remarkable career.
Her passion for archaeology began early. At age 12, inspired by fossils she discovered at Girl Scout camp and influenced by a seventh-grade history teacher who introduced her to ancient Greece, Magness knew her path. By ninth grade, her yearbook already proclaimed her ambition: “Archaeologist.”
A transformative tour of Israel in summer 1972 changed her trajectory permanently. Magness left Miami to complete high school at Midreshet Sde Boker in Israel’s Negev desert, followed by undergraduate studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Though briefly considering law school — with acceptances from the Universities of Florida and Miami — her decision solidified after attending a packed lecture about the discovery of Jerusalem’s Roman Cardo, the ancient city’s main thoroughfare.
Rather than returning to America, she worked as a tour guide and naturalist at the Ein Gedi field school — a decision that prompted what she laughingly recalls as “not a great call” to her parents. Four years later, she enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania for her doctorate before eventually joining Carolina’s faculty in 2002 after teaching at Tufts University.
Figure of Samson from the Huqoq synagogue. Photo by Jim Haberman.
Magness’s most significant recent work has been at Huqoq (pronounced “HOO-coke”), an ancient village in Israel where she has led excavations for over a decade. Her team unearthed an extraordinary 1,600-year-old synagogue adorned with intricate mosaics depicting biblical scenes, providing invaluable insights into Jewish life and artistic expression during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods.
“There’s a never-ending stream of interesting questions about this region,” she observes. “From an archaeological point of view, Israel is the most extensively explored country on Earth.”
While filming The Story of God with Morgan Freeman.
Her expertise resonates beyond academic circles. The award-winning teacher and scholar, who served as president of the Archaeological Institute of America, has brought her knowledge to broader audiences through appearances in National Geographic’s IMAX film “Jerusalem” and as both consultant and on-camera expert in “The Story of God with Morgan Freeman.”
Magness also continues to publish extensively. Her recent work, “Jerusalem Through the Ages: From Its Beginnings to the Crusades” (2024), joins her collection of scholarly publications, including accessible guides to biblical archaeology for general readers.
For Magness, every artifact tells a story, every excavation uncovers a chapter of human history. Whether consulting on documentaries about controversial religious relics or carefully brushing dust from ancient mosaics, she approaches her work with the same passion that began with a young girl finding fossils at summer camp.
As technology advances, allowing for developments like AI-generated images based on the Shroud of Turin attempting to depict Jesus’s appearance, Magness’s grounding in archaeological evidence and historical context becomes increasingly valuable. In an era of misinformation, her commitment to separating myth from scientific evidence provides crucial clarity about our shared past.
Attending East Chapel Hill Rotary where Jodi is a member. Pictured with DG Martin.
And tomorrow? It might be East Chapel Hill Rotary meeting or a birthday celebration with her husband at a favorite Chapel Hill restaurant. Or, who knows, another excavation, another discovery, another call from somewhere in the world seeking the expertise of the archaeologist who once declared her ambition in a high school yearbook and never looked back.
Jodi with her husband, Jim Haberman.
https://www.jodimagness.org
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Laurie Paolicelli
Disclaimer: Published by Orange County’s Tourism Department through its Public Relations team, this story includes interviews and repurposed content from websites and partner press releases. For more, visit www.visitchapelhill.org or contact Laurie Paolicelli.
Laurie Paolicelli is executive director for the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau, a position she has held since 2005. Laurie has worked in tourism and marketing for twenty-five years, having served in leadership roles in Houston and California convention and visitor bureaus. She is a native of the Twin Ports of Duluth, MN/Superior Wisconsin. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business and Communications from the University Wisconsin-Superior and graduate certification in Technology In Marketing from the UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. This reporter can be reached at Information@TheLocalReporter.press
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