Israel Finkelstein

Israel Finkelstein is a Professor Emeritus of the Archaeology of Israel in the Bronze and Iron Ages at Tel-Aviv University, who now serves as Head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, ‘associé étranger’ of the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Finkelstein is the Laureate of the Dan David Prize in the Past Dimension, Archaeology, 2005. 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 honoris causa from the University of Lausanne. Finkelstein is the winner of the Prix Delalande Guérineau (2014), awarded by the Institut de France, l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.

Finkelstein is co-Director of the Megiddo Expedition and the Shmunis Family Excavations at Kiriath-jearim. In 2009-2014 he co-directed the European Research Council-funded project titled “Reconstructing Ancient Israel: The Exact and Life Sciences Perspective.”