Public lifeמשה שטקליס

Moshe Stekelis

Moshe Stekelis was an Israeli prehistorian and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who excavated the Neolithic Yarmukian culture at Sha'ar HaGolan.

1898 to 1967Identifying the Yarmukian cultureExcavations at Sha'ar HaGolanDiscovering Kebara CaveFounding Haifa's prehistory museum

Born: 18 June 1898, Kamianets-Podilskyi
Died: 12 March 1967, Jerusalem
Occupation: prehistorian, pedagogue
Education: Odesa University
Founded: Moshe Stekelis Museum of Prehistory

Moshe Stekelis was born in 1898 in Kamianets-Podilskyi

Stekelis was born in 1898 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, then in the Russian Empire. He studied archaeology at Odessa University and served as deputy director of the Odessa Archeological Museum from 1921 to 1924.

He was exiled to Siberia for Zionist activity and moved to the Land of Israel in 1928. He first worked draining swamps at Kebara, where he found Kebara Cave in 1929. He married the poet Miriam Yalan-Stekelis in 1929, and after their divorce in 1939 he married the illustrator Bina Gvirtz.

He received a doctorate in Paris in 1935 and joined the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1938. He excavated many sites, including Gesher Benot Ya'akov, Qafzeh Cave, Evron and Ubeidiya. At Sha'ar HaGolan, from 1943 and again from 1949 to 1952, he uncovered a Neolithic village and named its culture the Yarmukian culture.

Stekelis promoted prehistory museums and founded the Museum of Prehistory in Haifa in 1962, which bears his name. His students included Ofer Bar-Yosef and Tamar Noy. He died at his home in Jerusalem in 1967.