An archaeologist from Jerusalem and a Jesuit from India among visiting lecturers at the Prague Facul

"Thanks to my excavations we have an urbanised settlement with fortifications, administration, and written records. So it cannot be said that the process of urbanisation began 100 years after King David." This was the basic message of a fascinating lecture given at the Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University (PTF) by Prof. Josef Garfinkel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on 25 October 2011. In the summer of 2011 a group of students and teachers from the PTF worked with Prof. Garfinkel on his excavations in Chirbet Qeiyafa in Israel. In October Prof. Garfinkel returned the visit, giving several lectures in Prague on his archaeological work, and explaining why he believes Chirbet Qeiyafa is the site of the Biblical city Shaaraim from the time of King David (the tenth century B.C.).

Prof. Garfinkel was just one of a varied group of visiting lecturers at the PTF in the winter semester 2011-12, including Annette Merz from Utrecht University, Andreas Hess from Swiss Interchurch Aid, Christopher Cowley from University College Dublin, John Crossland from Portsmouth University, and, last but not least, Orville de Silva, an Indian Jesuit involved in a number of social and environmental programmes in Goa, speaking on the theme "Globalisation and its influence on the original inhabitants: popular movements against economic zones in Goa and development alternatives inspired by Gandhi".

Peter Stephens