Juris Zarins

Juris Zarins ( lett: Juris Zariņš ) ( b. 1945 in Germany ) is an American- Latvian Near Eastern archaeologist who conducts research especially in the incense countries Oman and Yemen.

Zarin was born at the end of the Second World War as a refugee in Germany. Shortly after his birth his parents emigrated to the United States. An archeology studies at the University of Nebraska, he joined in 1967 with a Bachelor (BA ) from. At the University of Chicago in 1976 he earned his doctorate with a thesis on Mesopotamia. He was an archaeological consultant to the Antiquities Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia before he was appointed to the Missouri State University in 1978. After his retirement in 2006, he devoted himself to a research project in Oman.

Research experience gained Juris Zarins in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Oman. He was an archaeologist at the Trans Arabia Ranulph Fiennes expedition that discovered the ancient city of Ubar in 1992.

One of its most controversial thesis that the Biblical Garden of Eden was located at the tip of the Persian Gulf, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow into the sea. To this end, he evaluated, among other Landsat images from space. According to his theory of biblical Gihon river corresponds to the river Karun in Iran and the river Pishon the Wadi Batin river system. His theory is supported by CA Schlabach but strongly criticized by the rest of the archaeological community.