Dr. Israel Finkelstein
Israel Finkelstein is Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University. He finished
his Ph.D. in 1983, taught at the University of Chicago and the Sorbonne and spent
research years at Harvard and the Hebrew University. Finkelstein conducted many
field projects, among them the excavations at biblical Shiloh and the celebrated site
of Megiddo. Finkelstein is the author of many books and about 300 articles. Notable
among the books are The Archaeology of the Israelite Settlement (1988), Living on
the Fringe (1995), The Bible Unearthed (2001), David and Solomon (2006 – the latter
two with Neil Asher Silberman) and The Forgotten Kingdom (2013, won of the Prix
Delalande Guérineau, 2014, of the Institut de France, l'Académie des Inscriptions et
Belles-Lettres). In 2005 Finkelstein won the Dan David Prize in the Past Dimension,
Archaeology. In 2009 he was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by
the French Minister of Culture and in 2010 received a doctorate Doctorate honoris
causa from the University of Lausanne. Finkelstein is a 'correspondant étranger' of
the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. In 2009-2014 he directed the
European Research Council-funded project titled "Reconstructing Ancient Israel: The
Exact and Life Sciences Perspective".
