Kinneret Regional Project is an international archaeological expedition to the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee under the auspices of the Universities of Bern (Switzerland), Helsinki (Finland), Leiden (The Netherlands) and Wofford College (Spartanburg/SC, USA) in collaboration with the Finnish Institute of the Middle East (FIME). Since 2006 Kinneret Regional Project is officially joined by students from Tartu (Estonia) and since 2010 by students from Bucharest University (Romania) with support from the Romanian Cultural Institute.
Kinneret Regional Project’s academic goal is to explore the cultural history and material heritage of the region on the northwestern shore of the See of Galilee with a special focus on the Bronze- and Iron Age city on Tel Kinrot and the Roman-Byzantine village on Horvat Kur. While excavations on Tel Kinrot have temporarily been interrupted since 2008 and are now in process of analysis and publication, a team from Bern, Helsinki, Leiden and Wofford College has been exploring Horvat Kur and its surroundings since 2007.
In the next future Kinneret Regional Project will continue to unearth the village and synagogue of Horvat Kur. A yearly field school complements the archaeological work and includes guest lectures by renowned local and international scholars. At the same time, a lab team continues analysis of finds and findings from Tel Kinrot to prepare the final publication of the Early Iron Age material culture with the support of a grant from the Shelby White & Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Students from all over the world are invited to join Kinneret Regional Project in exploring the fascinating and important cultural heritage on the Sea of Galilee.
Previous and Present Sponsors and Collaboration Partners
Arco – Conservation and Traditional Construction Works, Yodfat • Skyview Photography Ltd, Petah-Tikva • The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, Haifa • Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot • Romanian Cultural Institute Tel Aviv • University of Bucharest • University of Tartu • The Finnish Institute in the Middle East • Finnish Cultural Foundation • Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz • Geocycles, Mainz • i3Mainz • Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz • Auswärtiges Amt der Bundesrepublik Deutschland • Deutscher Verein vom Heiligen Lande, Köln • Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Bonn • Schröter Stiftung, Neustadt • Swiss National Science Foundation • UniBern Research Foundation, Bern • Dr. h.c. Emile Dreyfus-Stiftung, Basel • Universität Basel (IPNA) • Leids Universiteits Fonds, Leiden • Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications (Harvard University).