Office of University Communications 

Archaeologist to speak on Temple Mount artifacts

SPRINGFIELD — Noted Israeli archaeologist and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project Dr. Gabriel Barkay will give a presentation at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 in Missouri State University’s Plaster Student Union Parliamentary Room. The presentation is free and open to the public. Barkay will discuss the groundbreaking archaeological project and the preliminary finds.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is considered a holy site in the Judaic, Christian and Islamic traditions, and because of political tensions, it has never before been subject to systematic archaeological study. Now, because of construction on the site, soil from the Temple Mount is being sifted.

“Muslims control the Temple Mount area in Jerusalem— it holds the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the famous Dome of the Rock shrine, and is one of the most sacred sites for Muslims,” said Dr. John Strong, associate professor of religious studies at Missouri State. “They did some construction on the Mount, for which they had to excavate some of the soil from the site. Interestingly, it is actually because of this construction that archaeologists now are able to sift this excavated soil and, for the first time, study the history of the Temple Mount using archaeological methods” 

Strong, who met Barkay in Israel in 2005, wrote the Public Affairs grant that will fund the event, which is sponsored by the religious studies department. During his trip to the United States, Barkay will also be presenting at Southwestern Theological Seminary in Dallas, Wheaton College and Andrews University, among others.

Barkay has more than 40 years experience in the archaeology of Israel and in Biblical archaeology, and in addition to directing the Temple Mount project, he currently teaches at Bar Ilan University, Hebrew University and Jerusalem University College.