Science at CU: Biblical archaeology made us revise what we knew

"I think archaeology is an integral part of working with ancient texts," says Filip Čapek of the Protestant Theological Faculty at CU. A key part of their work is field archaeological excavations, most often in Israel. In a one-minute video, he reveals what the discovery of the temple at Tel Moca means.

"Archaeology is an integral part of working with ancient texts, and therefore, perhaps surprisingly for some, we also do archaeology at our theology faculty, both theoretically and practically," says Filip Čapek, who works at the Department of Old Testament at Protestant Theological Faculty at CU. He is also a member of the Centre for Biblical Studies, a joint department of the CU and the Czech Academy of Sciences. He leads a Czech team that regularly participates in archaeological excavations in Israel at the sites of Tel Azekah (since 2012) and Tel Moca (since 2019).

"Most archaeology is still fieldwork, but there are many modern methods and technologies being used as well. For example, drones, 3D scanning, modulation of the architectural elements we find, and so on," says the expert, who works closely with archaeologist Oded Lipschits, who last year received an honorary doctor honoris causa degree from Charles University. On that occasion, he gave an exclusive interview to the UK Forum.

"The biggest discovery to date, on which we have worked closely with Israeli colleagues, is the temple at Tel Moca near Jerusalem. The discovery of this temple means a redrawing of the map of our knowledge in this area in terms of cult, religion, history," says Filip Čapek. Read more about the mysterious temple in a separate article.