* Posthume Thanks to Isadore Perlman *
It is a honour for me to remember the memory of the late Professor Isadore Perlman (1991), my teacher and colleague and his wife, Lee Perlman, who died on 30 March 2005.
Iz, as we called him, was first of all a "mensch" with all its connotations. Although of small stature, Iz was a giant in all of the fields of his many specialities in the Natural Sciences, but he became great in my eyes because of his integrity and personality, his eagerness to be of help to students, his astuteness in being able to connect dry analytical data with intriguing archaeological problems, and his accurateness in putting this evidence in writing, his adaptation to new circumstances and his openness towards anything which provided some challenge, and his insistence to teach people to look for the core of a problem and to pursue that with perseverance, and last, but not least, his wittyness.
I met Iz and his wife Lee in the summer of 1973 at the Excavations of Tel Akko directed by Moshe Dothan. In the first days of the dig, I knew him as a senior volunteer. He chose my area to work in, because he was interested in the cut that I made through the entire Tell reaching the kurkar-sand stone, and thus obtaining an open book with pages filled with history of ancient Akko. Iz was intrigued by history and asked many questions. One afternoon at the sorting table of potery sherds, I was talking to a student who had asked me about the significance of the white inclusions in ancient pottery. I told him that calcium-carbonate in clay usually decomposes when it is fired in a kiln at 850 degrees Celsius. "No", said Iz, "that happens at 860 degrees and over a quite long period of time". I asked him how he knew, and he answered that he was a chemist. At the end of that dig, he invited me to join him at his new lab which was in the process of being established at the new department of Archaeometry at the Hebrew University.
In the early days, in 1973, Iz probably saw my bewildered eyes, each time we had a conversation. Here was a man who talked about emission of alpha particles whereby an element lowers itself two places in the periodic system. I didn't know what emission was, or what particle he was referring to, not to talk about the periodic table. But Iz didn't wait for an invitation to explain it, so he explained, and from that day on, he frequently visited my office and initiated me into the mysteries of Science with the intention to establish what he called a "Handshake between Science and Humanities".
In those days we all learned to enter each others offices to discuss equipment, project procedures, analytical data and archaeological or geological problems, because Iz brought with him "the" important feature from the legacy of the Lawrence Berkeley laboratory i.e. a spirit of cooperation so needed in research and so often lacking. He knew what the delegation of power meant. The lab was not a one-man-show. Iz used to bestow on us a certain responsibility and when the day of discussions arrived, he not only gave us the possibility to explain one's case at ease (without interruptions) but he also directed us through every necessary step in order to obtain the utmost information needed to solve a problem, and to couple that with all knowledge that stood at his disposal.
Moreover, he was a great teacher. The stuff was difficult but extremely rewarding. He was one of these lucky men who are able to convey to students an expert opinion with its own difficult nomenclature, into a concept that was easily understandable, also to the layman. At the same time that I was wrestling with the laboratory procedures, Iz learned archaeology, with the difference that it didn't take him that much time. After that, we had many conversations of how to tackle one of the largest mysteries in archaeology: The origin of pottery.
With Iz around, one didn't need to explain archaeological problems twice, and very soon, he understood the questions which daily pester archaeologists, and he knew on the spot whether archaeometry would be able to give some positive answers to the archaeologists and geologists. It was a pleasure to work for him and later with him, especially during the writing of our joint papers. When Iz wrote a final sentence, one could be sure that every word was checked. He always consulted Webster's Dictionnary, however well he mastered the English language. When needed, even the final text was altered. He was the kind of man that had little or no problems with his ego.
Iz's integrity was beyond doubt. He checked and re-checked daily the neutron activation spectra one by one, and after that the data print-outs and taught us to check analytical data frequently and with many colleagues, because "The more accurate the data, the surer the provenience determination". It has been an honour to work with Iz. Each paper brought some deeper insight into what was a large question mark before. New questions came up every day, and the latter is exactly what research is all about: One answers a single question to be able to ask new questions. This part of his work will live on in the publications which come out of our laboratory work. I miss him tremendously in our conversations and in his ability to shed new light on problems where there didn't seem to be any light.
With Iz no longer with us, a pioneer has gone, but his work lives on in our work. Anyone who sees a publication from our laboratory will recognize Iz's fingerprint. However, large amounts of information could not be interpreted automatically and for this Iz had a witty remark. He said, and I quote, "At least, we have many an answer in search of a question". May his soul rest in peace.
Isadore Perlman, a real colleague
During my collaborative work together with Iz Perlman at the NAA laboratory at the Hebrew University, our families--the Perlmans and the Gunnewegs--met frequently whether it was at the Perlman's home in Talbieh-Katamon or in Yemin Moshe where we live.
Through Lee and Iz, we also met their three daughters and became acquainted with their stories of herring-fishing, making jewelry, museum and archive research of the Jewish Community and the Crete-connection that was also on our list of issues at the NAA lab in Jerusalem.
The last time that I have seen the entire family together was in 1989 on the occasion of Iz's 75 birthday in Albany, California, when I spent my Sabatical at LBL Berkeley with Frank Asaro, Helen Michel, Bob Giaucke and Fred Stross.
The last time that we have seen Lee was on her 80 birthday at Rossmoor, Walnut Creek in 1996 during my second Sabatical at LBL.
My wife and I will always remember the Perlmans with joy in our hearts. God bless their souls.
From right to left: Iz Perlman, Lee Perlman, Hanna Gunneweg-Kalfon and Jan Gunneweg during a dinner at King Shin in Berkeley, 1985
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