Khirbet Qeiyafa on the Telly at the BBC

The excavation at Khirbet Qeiaya is on television again, this time in the UK. It is included in a three-part BBC series ‘The Bible’s Buried Secrets’. It is based on research and teaching of lead interviewer Dr. Francesca Stavrakopoulou from Exeter University. Qeiyafa is featured in the first episode of the series airing next Tuesday, March 15, on BBC 2 and BBC HD.

I don’t know what will be Dr. Stavrakopoulou’s conclusions on King David. She has excavated with Dr. Aren Maeir at Tel es-Safi (Gath). Here is Aren’s blog post when she and the BBC crew visited last summer. I was at Qeiyafa at that same time when she visited us and interviewed Yossi Garfinkel. Here is my post from the BBC visit last year.

The BBC filming Dr, Francesca Stavrakopoulou for "The Bible's Buried Secrets" at Khirbet Qeiyafa in 2010. (Photo by Royce Chandler)

After they finished shooting at Qeiyafa their van broke down. As a consequence, they rode part of the way back on my bus. The cameraman sat next to me and we had a nice conversation for about 12-15 minutes before he got off to meet another van. He has filmed projects around the world, including his personal favorite in Italy. He got to spend several days shooting paintings in Florence and Rome.  He literally spent hours in front of each masterpiece, focusing on a small portion of the painting than moving to another portion, than moving to another portion, until he captured the entire work on HD. On another occasion he was trying to film whales in a stormy North Sea and feared for his life. Quite the job, eh?