Professor Yosef Garfinkel studied Archaeology and Geography (B.A.), and Prehistory and Biblical Archaeology (M.A.) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he also completed his Ph.D. on the Pottery Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic periods.
Since 1993, he has been teaching the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Age periods at the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has also held visiting scholar positions at Harvard University, Yale University, Oxford University, Cambridge University, and King’s College London.
Over the course of his career, Professor Garfinkel has directed excavations at numerous proto-historic sites in Israel, including Yiftahel, Gesher, Tel Ali, Sha‘ar Hagolan, Neolithic Ashkelon, and Tel Tsaf. From 2007 to 2013, he led the groundbreaking excavation at Khirbet Qeiyafa, where, for the first time in Israeli archaeology, a fortified city dating to the time of King David was uncovered.
Following this, he directed excavations at Khirbet al-Ra‘i, another site from the Davidic period, as well as at the biblical city of Lachish, the second most important city in Judah after Jerusalem. His work at Lachish has continued from 2022 to the present.