Yuval Goren

Yuval Goren examining panels using X-ray fluorescence analysis

Yuval Goren ( Hebrew יובל גורן, * 1956 in Petach Tikwa , Israel ) is an Israeli archaeologist and professor at Ben Gurion University in the Negev .

Life

Goren began studying archeology at Ben Gurion University in 1981. In 1991 he received his doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a thesis on the subject of the beginning of ceramic production in Israel and the surrounding area according to the petrographic analyzes in the Neolithic , Copper Age and Early Bronze Age . Reviewers were Paul Goldberg and Yitzhak Gilad. Goren studied micromorphology with Paul Goldberg. He subsequently specialized in microscopic methods for researching the origin of ceramics and other archaeological finds.

From 1989 to 1996 he worked as a petrographic researcher with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). From 1991 to 1996 he was also chairman of the IAA union.

From 1996 to 2000 he was a lecturer at the Department of Archeology and Culture of the Ancient Orient at Tel Aviv University . In 2000 he was appointed associate professor and in 2005 full professor. From 2000 to 2005 he was head of this department. He also held various other offices at Tel Aviv University, including

Chairman of the Faculty Research Committee,

Member of the nomination and doctoral committees of the Faculty of Humanities ,

Member of the University Senate,

Member of the board of directors of the university,

Vice Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.

Goren founded the Comparative Microarchaeology Laboratory at the Institute of Archeology at Tel Aviv University. He was the initiator and chairman of the master’s program in archeology and archaeomaterials. This program is an advanced training course for archeology students to learn research methods from the natural and material sciences and their application in the investigation of archaeological finds.

Goren has been Honorary Professor of Archeology at University College London since 2014 . Goren has been working at Ben Gurion University in the Negev since 2016.

Research interests

Goren's main research areas are microarchaeology, the study of the composition and origin of archaeological ceramics, and techniques of optical mineralogy and petrography.

Expert activity in controversies about the authenticity of inscriptions on archaeological finds

Since the 1970s, the production of counterfeit antiques has experienced an upswing in Israel. Experts were often behind the forgeries who carried out the forgeries so skillfully that they were very difficult to detect even for experts. From 2004 to 2012, five suspected counterfeiters were brought to trial, which was then discontinued due to a lack of evidence. These five were

Rafael Braun, antiques restorer, former director of the Israel Museum's antiques laboratory

Shlomo Cohen, collector of antiques

Faiz al-Amaleh, antique dealer

Oded Golan (* 1951), collector of antiques

Robert Deutsch, antique dealer, archaeologist, epigraphist .

The charges against Shlomo Cohen have been dropped. The Egyptian artist Marco Samah Shoukri Ghatas confessed that he had made the Joasch inscription . Faiz al-Amaleh was sentenced to 6 months in prison. Robert Deutsch and Oded Golan were acquitted of charges of counterfeiting antiques. However, this was not a judgment as to the authenticity of the antiquities concerned, which many archaeologists continue to view as fakes.

The pattern of the forgeries was as follows: Real antiques were provided with inscriptions, or existing inscriptions were expanded. Then these new inscriptions were covered with a patina specially made for this purpose. The content of these inscriptions often confirmed biblical, religious, and political statements that archaeologists had long sought. As a result, the respective antique was "upgraded" and could often be sold very expensively.

For some of these forgeries, Goren was called in as an expert. In the case of the Jakobus ossuary , the Joasch inscription and the ivory pomegranate , he came to the conclusion from investigations into the patina over the inscriptions that these were probably added in whole or in part more recently.

Publications

Messages impressed in clay: Scientific study of Iron Age Judahite bullae from Jerusalem together with S. Gurwin and E. Arie in Craft and Science: International Perspectives on Archaeological Ceramics, 2014, pp. 143–149
The operation of a portable petrographic thin-section laboratory for field studies in New York Microscopical Society Newsletter, 2014 download as pdf possible
The Authenticity of the Bullae of Berekhyahu Son of Neriyahu the Scribe together with Eran Arie in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2014, doi : 10.5615 / bullamerschoorie.372.0147 downloadable as pdf
New Design for a Versatile Field Microscope in Microscopy today, 2013, doi : 10.1017 / S1551929513000370 download as pdf possible
Authenticity examination of the inscription on the ossuary attributed to James, brother of Jesus together with Avner Ayalon and Miryam Bar-Matthews in Journal of Archaeological Science 31, 2004, pp. 1185-1189 online, pdf
The Location of Alashiya: New Evidence from Petrographic Investigation of Alashiyan Tablets from El-Amarna and Ugarit together with Shlomo Bunimovitz, Israel Finkelstein , Nadav Na'ama in American Journal of Archeology, 2003, pp. 233-255
Kissufim Road: A Chalcolithic Mortuary Site together with Peter Fabian, Israel Antiquities Authority, 2002, ISBN 978-9654061391 downloadable as pdf
Examination of Authenticity: James Brother of Jesus Ossuary and Yehoash King of Yehuda Inscription , Department of Archeology and Ancient Eastern Cultures and the Laboratory for Comparative Microarchaeology, Tel Aviv University, 2000 online

Publications with Paul Goldberg and others

Ruth Shahack-Gross, Avner Ayalon, Paul Goldberg, Yuval Goren, B. Ofek, Rivka Rabinovich, Erella Hovers: Formation processes of cemented features in karstic cave sites revealed using stable oxygen and carbon isotopic analyzes: A case study at Middle Paleolithic Amud Cave , Israel in Geoarchaeology, 23: pp. 43-62, 2008
Madella, Marco, Martin K. Jones, Paul Goldberg, Yuval Goren, Erella Hovers: The exploitation of plant resources by Neanderthals in Amud Cave (Israel): The evidence from phytolith studies in Journal of Archaeological Science, 29, pp. 703-719 , 2002
Paul Goldberg, Yuval Goren: Micromorphological observations at Saflulim , Appendix to A. Nigel Goring-Morris, Saflulim: A Late Natufian base camp in the Central Negev highlands, Israel in Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 131: pp. 58-60, 1999
Yuval Goren, Avi Gopher, Paul Goldberg: The beginnings of pottery production in the southern Levant: Technological and social aspects in Biblical Archeology Today, 1990: Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Biblical Archeology, Supplement. Jerusalem, Israel Exploration Society, pp. 32-40, 1993
Yuval Goren, Paul Goldberg: Petrographic thin sections and the development of Neolithic plaster production in Northern Israel in Journal of Field Archeology, 18: pp. 131-138, 1991