Yosef Garfinkel

Prof. Yosef Garfinkel

Yosef Garfinkel (born 1956) is a professor of Prehistoric Archaeology and of Archaeology of the Biblical Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[1]

Biography

Yosef (Yossi) Garfinkel was born in 1956 in Haifa, Israel. He is a curator of the museum of Yarmukian Culture at Kibbutz Sha'ar HaGolan. Garfinkel 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. He has excavated numerous Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites, including Gesher, Yiftahel, Neolithic Ashkelon, Sha'ar HaGolan, Tel ‘Ali and Tel Tsaf. Garfinkel is the author of 12 books and over 100 articles on ancient architecture, farming, water sources, pottery, art, religion and dance.

Since 2007 he has been conducting excavations at the fortified city of Khirbet Qeiyafa. This site is dated to the early 10th century BC, the period of the biblical King David. In the 2008 season an inscription was discovered written in ink on a pottery shard in a script which is probably Early Alphabetic/Proto Phoenician,.[2][3] This might be the earliest Hebrew inscription ever found, although the actual language of the inscription is still under debate.[4][5]

Excavations

Published work

References

  1. http://archaeology.huji.ac.il/depart/biblical/yosefg/yosefg.asp
  2. Misgav, Haggai; Garfinkel, Yosef; Ganor, Saar (2009). "The Ostracon". In Garfinkel, Yosef and Ganor, Saar. Khirbet Qeiyafa, Vol. 1: Excavation Report 2007–2008. Jerusalem. pp. 243–257. ISBN 978-965-221-077-7. Cited in Rollston, Christopher (June 2011). "The Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon: Methodological Musings and Caveats". Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 38 (1): 67–82. doi:10.1179/033443511x12931017059387.
  3. Rollston, Christopher (June 2011). "The Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon: Methodological Musings and Caveats". Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 38 (1): 67–82. doi:10.1179/033443511x12931017059387.
  4. Have Israeli archaeologists found world's oldest Hebrew inscription?
  5. Finkelstein & Fantalkin: Khirbet Qeiyafa: An Unsensational Archaeological and Historical Interpretation

External links