Archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, pioneer of Temple Mount research, dies at 81 |
Iconic Israeli archaeologist Gabriel “Gabi” Barkay died on Sunday at age 81 after a long illness. He was well known for his pioneering work on soil from the Temple Mount and for his discovery of one of the oldest fragments of the biblical text ever found.
Considered by many to be among the giants of his generation, Barkay’s willingness to employ nontraditional research methods and his maximalist approach to some issues in following the Bible as a historical source also drew criticism from some scholars.
“It’s a great loss. He really left a very big void in the archaeology world,” said archaeologist Zachi Dvira, who worked side by side with Barkay for two decades in co-directing the Temple Mount Sifting Project. “His approach is something that I don’t think we will find in the next generation of archaeologists.”
Barkai was born in Hungary in 1944, where his family was hunted down by the Nazis. He moved to Jerusalem with his parents at the age of 6, and the city became his lifelong mission.
“He was like the top expert of the archaeology of Jerusalem, but also in all aspects of the city’s history,” Dvira told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. “If you were with him in Jerusalem, he would tell you the story of every street and corner.”
Barkay pursued his degrees at Tel Aviv University and worked under the greatest founders of Israeli archaeology, including Yigael Yadin, Benjamin Mazar and Yohanan Aharoni.
According to Dvira, Barkay had a prodigious memory and could provide information on an endless number of artifacts, periods, events, and typologies on the spot.
“He was like a biblical archaeology and Jerusalem archaeology Google,” he noted. “Anyone who wanted to find information on a certain topic or item and could not find it would come and consult with him.”
Ultimately, it was this encyclopedic knowledge that brought the two together.
Dvira had first met Barkay in 1998 while he was studying at Bar-Ilan University and was impressed with the passion the late researcher revealed, not only for archaeological excavations and scientific results, but also for those behind them, their stories and their personalities.
“He loved people,” Dvira said.
In his third year of studies, Dvira and a fellow student decided to conduct a small survey on a portion of the some 9,000 tons of soil that had been........