Yosef Garfinkel (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: יוסף גרפינקל; born 1956) is an Israeli archaeologist and academic. He is a professor of

Prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and of Archaeology of the Biblical Period at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

Biography

Yosef Garfinkel was born in 1956 in Haifa, Israel. He served in the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

between 1975 and 1978. He studied at

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in geography and archaeology in 1981, a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(MA) degree in prehistory and Biblical archaeology in 1987, and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(PhD) degree in 1991. 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 Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

, 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 The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

sites, including Gesher, Yiftahel, the

settlement of Tel Ashkelon, Sha'ar HaGolan, Tel ‘Ali and Tel Tsaf. Garfinkel is the author of 34 books and over 180 articles on ancient architecture, farming, water sources, pottery, art, religion and dance. In 2007, he began conducting excavations at the fortified city of

Khirbet Qeiyafa Khirbet Qeiyafa (), also known as Elah Fortress and in Hebrew as Horbat Qayafa (), is the site of an ancient fortress city overlooking the Valley of Elah and dated to the first half of the 10th century BCE. The ruins of the fortress were uncove ...

. This site is dated to the early 10th century BC, the period of the biblical

King David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

. In the 2008 season an

inscription Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

was discovered written in ink on a pottery shard in a script which is probably Early Alphabetic/Proto Phoenician. Cited in This might be the earliest

inscription ever found, although the actual language of the inscription is still under debate.

Excavations

* Tel Lachish *

* Tel Tsaf: 2004 (preliminary survey), 2006 (first season) * Sha'ar HaGolan * Yiftahel * Neolithic Ashkelon * Gesher

Partial Bibliography

* Y. Garfinkel. 1992. The ''Pottery Assemblages of Sha'ar HaGolan and Rabah Stages from Munhata (Israel)''. Paris: Association Paléorient. * Y. Garfinkel. 1995. ''Human and Animal Figurines of Munhata, Israel''. Paris: Association Paléorient. * Y. Garfinkel. 1999. ''Neolithic and Chalcolithic Pottery of the Southern Levant''. (Qedem 39). Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University. * Y. Garfinkel, and M. Miller. 2002. ''Sha'ar HaGolan'' Vol 1. ''Neolithic Art in Context''. Oxford: Oxbow. * Y. Garfinkel. 2003. ''Dance at the Dawn of Agriculture''. Austin: Texas University Press. * Y. Garfinkel. 2004. ''The Goddess of Sha'ar HaGolan. Excavations at a Neolithic Site in Israel''. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society. * Y. Garfinkel and D. Dag. 2006. ''Gesher: A Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Site in the Central Jordan Valley, Israel''. A Final Report. Berlin: Ex Oriente. * Y. Garfinkel and S. Cohen. 2007. ''The Early Middle Bronze Cemetery of Gesher. Final Excavation Report''. AASOR 62. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research. * Y. Garfinkel and D. Dag. 2008 ''Neolithic Ashkelon''. (Qedem 47). Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University. * O. Bar-Yosef and Y. Garfinkel. 2008. ''The Prehistory of Israel. Human Cultures before Writing''. Jerusalem: Ariel (Hebrew). * * Yosef Garfinkel. 2024. ''Colonial Archaeology in Palestine in the 1930s: The First Expedition to Lachish.''

Israel Exploration Society The Israel Exploration Society (''IES'') (Hebrew:החברה לחקירת ארץ ישראל ועתיקותיה – Hakhevra Lekhakirat Eretz Yisrael Va'atikoteha), originally the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, is a society devoted to histor ...

. ISBM 978-965-221-133-0.

References

External links

Prof. Yosef Garfinkel HomepagePrize Find: Oldest Hebrew Inscription
Biblical Archaeology Review {{DEFAULTSORT:Garfinkel, Yosef 1956 births Living people 20th-century Israeli archaeologists 21st-century Israeli archaeologists Scientists from Haifa Israeli Jews Jewish historians Yarmukian culture Tel Lachish