Scienceיצחק דבירה

Zachi Dvira

Zachi Dvira is an Israeli archaeologist who co-founded and co-directs the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

born 1972Temple Mount Sifting ProjectMonitoring Waqf works on the Temple MountResearch in the Mandate antiquities archive

Born: 21 November 1972
Occupation: archaeologist
Education: Bar-Ilan University
Founded: Temple Mount Sifting Project (2004)

Zachi Dvira was born in 1972

Yitzhak (Zachi) Dvira was born on November 21, 1972, to Zvi and Hila Zweig, and grew up in Herzliya in a traditional home. His family name was formerly Zweig. From a young age he studied the Bible, seeking to learn what the original commandments were.

In 1999 he was an archaeology student at Bar-Ilan University. With fellow students he examined rubble the Islamic Waqf had dumped from building work on the Temple Mount, and showed some finds at a conference on Jerusalem. He was then detained and charged with antiquities robbery, and the charges were later dropped after a trial in 2003.

From 2001 he worked with his lecturer Gabriel Barkay to set up a project for sifting the Temple Mount debris. They received a license in 2004, and 285 truckloads of rubble were moved to a site on Mount Scopus. Finds include a coin from the First Jewish-Roman War and a clay seal impression that appears to name Ge'aliyahu, son of Immer.

In the British Mandate Antiquities Department archive he found unpublished records of finds from Waqf works in 1938-1942. He dated mosaics there to the Byzantine period, a dating that other archaeologists disputed in 2018. He also tracks Waqf works on the Temple Mount and documented a trench dug there in 2007.