Yosef Garfinkel
Yosef Garfinkel is Professor of Biblical archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and curator of the Museum of Yarmukian Culture at Kibbutz Sha‘ar Hagolan. He specializes in the Protohistoric era of the Near East, the period of time when the world’s earliest village communities were established and the beginning of agriculture took place. Dr. Garfinkel has been the Yigael Yadin Professor for the Archaeology of Israel since 2007, which is the same year when he began conducting excavations at the fortified city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, a Biblical site that dates to the early tenth century B.C., the period of King David. An outstanding discovery made in the 2008 season is an inscription written in ink on a pottery sherd—the earliest Hebrew inscription ever found. He also excavated at Tel Lachish in the years 2013-2017 and at the nearby Khirbet al-Ra'i. In both sites levels dated to the 10th century BCE were found.
Presenter at
Spring Bible & Archaeology Fest 2022, April 2 – 3, 2022
The Bible and Archaeology: A Love-Hate Relationship
From the beginnings of Near Eastern archaeology, a love-hate relationship has characterized how scholars relate archaeological discoveries to the biblical tradition. This lecture will analyze the history of the field, arguing for five different phases in the relationship between the Bible and archaeology, beginning in 1847, when the Lachish reliefs from Sennacherib’s palace in Nineveh were unearthed. As we will see, current debates about the historicity of the biblical tradition are actually very old, almost as old as the field of Near Eastern archaeology itself.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XIX, November 18 – 20, 2016
The Judean Kingdom in the Shephela: the New Excavations of Lachish
Lachish was the second largest city in the Biblical kingdom of Judah, after Jerusalem. It has already been excavated by three different expeditions. However, in 2013 a new field project – the fourth expedition to Lachish – Dr. Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well asM.G. Hasel and M.G. Klingbeil of the Southern Adventist University. This lecture presents the new finds and their implications for understanding the ninth and tenth centuries of the Biblical kingdom of Judah.
Bible & Archaeology Fest XVII, November 21 – 23, 2014
Bible & Archaeology Fest XIII, November 19 – 21, 2010
