The lecture will deal with the Northern Kingdom of Israel, with special reference to the results of the excavations at the celebrated site of Megiddo. Attention will be given to the rise of the kingdom, the period of the Omride Dynasty and the time of Jeroboam II. Archaeology sheds light on the material culture and history of these phases, as well as on biblical texts reflecting on the North and its people.
Israel Finkelstein is Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. 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. In 2005 Finkelstein won the Dan David Prize in the Past Dimension, Archaeology. Finkelstein is a ‚correspondant étranger‘ of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres. 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. In 2009-2014 he directed the European Research Council-funded project titled „Reconstructing Ancient Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective“.
Moderation: Professor Dr. Stefan Beyerle