Gabriel Barkay

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Gabriel Barkay is a professor of Biblical archaeology at Bar Ilan University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His academic areas of interest include the archaeology of Jerusalem, burials and burial customs, art, epigraphy, and glyptics in the Iron Age. Professor Barkay's most famous discoveries are small silver plaques containing the priestly benediction from the Book of Numbers, which he discovered in 1979 at Ketef Hinnom. These plaques are believed to contain the oldest biblically-related inscription, dating back to 600 BC. He also excavated the Iron Age tombs on the grounds of the École Biblique in the early 1970's. Barkay frequently appears on the History Channel show The Naked Archaeologist, which is hosted by Simcha Jacobovici.