Juris Zarins

Juris Zarins (1945–2023) was an American archaeologist born in Germany. He earned a PhD in ancient Near Eastern languages and archaeology at the University of Chicago in 1974, worked for years in Saudi Arabia and Oman, and taught at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) University.

He was the archaeologist on the 1992 expedition organized by Nicholas Clapp to find Ubar, the lost center of the frankincense trade later linked to Iram of the Pillars. Zarins led excavations at Shisr in Oman's Dhofar region, where the team found a fortified caravan stop, partly collapsed into a sinkhole, with evidence of long-distance trade. Unlike Clapp, he was cautious about calling Shisr 'Ubar' itself; he later argued that ancient sources, such as Ptolemy's map, use the name for a people and a region rather than a town.

Zarins is also known for proposing that the Garden of Eden lay at the head of the Persian Gulf, where the Tigris and Euphrates meet, identifying the biblical Pishon with the dry Wadi Batin. Both ideas remain debated.