Yehoshua (Shuka) Dorfman (; 1950 - 31 July 2014) was an Israeli military officer and the Director General of the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

(IAA).

Career

Dorfman had practically no formal archaeological training, his academic training being in

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

, which he studied at

Haifa University The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an indepen ...

. He served in a number of military positions, reaching the rank of Brigadier General. He saw combat in the

War of Attrition The War of Attrition (; ) involved fighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and their allies from 1967 to 1970. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, no serious diplomatic efforts were made to resolve t ...

, the Lebanon War and the Yom Kippur War. As chief artillery officer, he commanded the artillery corps during the Operation Accountability attack against Lebanon. He retired from the IDF in 2000. Dorfman headed the IAA for almost 15 years, from November 2000 until his death in 2014, his tenure as director general having been extended twice. During his time as director, the organization expanded the scope of archaeological rescue excavations of sites threatened by

land development Land development is the alteration of landscape in any number of ways, such as: * Changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or House, housing * subdivision (land), Subdividing real estate into Lot ( ...

and construction. He promoted conservation efforts and the development of excavated sites for public access. The director advocated for the use of advanced technology in the field and helped accelerate its implementation in research and conservation. He stressed the archaeological importance of the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts, ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period (516 BCE – 70 CE). They were discovered over a period of ten years, between ...

, and under his tenure, they were digitized and made accessible to the public.

Death

After a long battle with illness, Dorfman died on 31 July 2014. He left behind a wife, Talma, and three sons. He was laid to rest in

Gedera Gedera, or less commonly known as Gdera (), is a town in the southern part of the Shfela region in the Central District of Israel founded in 1884. It is south of Rehovot. In , it had a population of . History Gedera is in the Book of C ...

Bibliography

* מתחת לפני השטח: יחסי הגומלין בין פוליטיקה לארכיאולוגיה בישראל (Below the Surface: The Interaction Between Politics and Archeology in Israel)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorfman, Yehoshua 1950 births 2014 deaths Israel Antiquities Authority University of Haifa alumni Israeli military officers he:יהושע דורפמן