The Rockefeller Museum (unofficial name till 1967, when it became official), formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum (PAM; 1938-1967),[1][2] is an archaeologymuseum located in East Jerusalem[3] that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the excavations conducted in Mandatory Palestine, in the 1920s and 1930s.
Prior to the establishment of the Rockefeller Museum, the British MandateDepartment of Antiquities and British School of Archaeology were housed in an old building in Jerusalem with a small exhibition hall. The only other archaeological museum at the time was the Franciscan Biblical Museum, built in 1902.[5]
In 1906, the Jewish National Fund began to negotiate the purchase of Karm el-Sheikh, a tract of land facing the northeastern corner of the Old City walls, to house the Bezalel School of Art and Crafts. The founder of the school, Boris Schatz envisaged a museum and university that would overlook the Temple Mount.[6] In 1919, town planner Patrick Geddes proposed the establishment of an antiquities museum at this site. To further the project, the Mandate authorities proposed a special tourism tax in 1924.[5]
Visiting Mandatory Palestine in 1925, during the days of the British Mandate, James Henry Breasted, founder and director of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, recognized the need for an archaeological museum in Jerusalem to house important regional finds.[5] Encouraged by Lord Plumer, the British High Commissioner, Breasted approached American philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who agreed to donate two million dollars toward the project. Previously, he had offered to build an archeological museum in Cairo, Egypt,[7] but he was turned down, possibly due to pressure from the British government, which was anxious to keep America from establishing a foothold in the region.
Relief representing Israelite culture, one of ten bas-reliefs by Eric Gill in the inner courtyard at the museum.
The museum was designed by Austen Harrison, (Austen St. Barbe Harrison), chief architect of the Mandatory Department of Public Works, who drew up blueprints for a white limestone building integrating eastern and western architectural elements.[1] The cornerstone of the new museum was laid on June 19, 1930, but construction was delayed due to the discovery of tombs dating to the fifth century B.C. at the building site.[8] The museum features a stone bas-relief of the meeting of Asia and Africa above the main entrance together with ten stone reliefs illustrating different cultures and a gargoyle fountain in the inner courtyard carved in 1934 by the British sculptor Eric Gill (1882–1940).[9] Gill also produced stone carved signage throughout the museum in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.
Rockefeller Museum inner courtyard.Inner courtyard with a view to the tower.
The museum opened to the public on January 13, 1938. Officially, it was called the Palestine Archaeological Museum, but was also known as the Rockefeller Museum.[1] Until the final days of the Mandate period, the museum was administered by the British Palestine Government.[10] On 1 April 1948 it was closed for the public.[11]
On 20 April 1948, the High Commissioner appointed a council of international trustees to administer the museum. The council consisted of twelve members: two representing the High Commissioner, one from the British Academy, one from the British Museum, one from the French National Academy, one from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two from the Antiquities Departments of the Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Iraqi or Transjordanian governments; one from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one from the Royal Swedish Academy, one from the American Institute of Archaeology, and one from the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem.[10][5] The board ran the museum until 1966. In the 1950s controversies arose about objects removed by the two sides to Amman and the Israeli side respectively.[12]
Seven months later, when the 1967 Six-Day War broke out, the museum was captured by an Israeli paratroop brigade.[8] Its hexagonal tower was used as a lookout. Fierce fighting took place here between Israeli and Jordanian forces, culminating in an Israeli victory.[citation needed] The Museum was then officially renamed as the Rockefeller Museum.[14]
Since 1967, the museum has been jointly managed by the Israel Museum and the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (later reorganized as the Israel Antiquities Authority).
Inside what was to have been the rear courtyard of the museum stood (until it died after nearly 300 years in 1998) one of the oldest pine trees in the country. According to Arab legend, on the site of this pine tree, Ezra the Scribe sat and wrote the Torah for Israel.[15] The stump may still be seen behind the museum.
Collections
The museum's first curator was John H. Iliffe,[16] who arranged the artifacts in chronological order, from two million years ago to 1700 AD. Among the museum's prized possessions are 8th-century wooden panels from the al-Aqsa Mosque and 12th-century (Crusader-period) marble lintels from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Most of the collection consists of finds from the 1920s and 1930s.[17] On display are artifacts unearthed in Jerusalem, Megiddo, Ashkelon, Lachish, Samaria, and Jericho. One of the Lachish letters is on permanent display at the museum,[18] as are the statuary and stucco decorations from the UmayyadHisham's Palace.
Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran between 1947 and 1956, consisting of Jewish texts and commentaries, were housed in the Rockefeller Museum. In 1967, following the Israeli capture of East Jerusalem, the scrolls were relocated to the Shrine of the Book, a specially designed building on the grounds of the Israel Museum, with the ownership of these scrolls having been heavily contested ever since. The Copper Scroll was taken to the Jordan Archaeological Museum in Amman.[19]
Currently, the Rockefeller Museum holds thousands of artifacts ranging from prehistoric times to the Ottoman period, including a 9,000-year old statue from Jericho and gold jewelry from the Bronze Age.[20]
The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts that were found in the Qumran Caves in the Judaean Desert, near Ein Feshkha on the northern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank; the last scrolls discovered were found in the Cave of Horror in Israel. The texts have great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the second-oldest known surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with deuterocanonical and extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism. Almost all of the scrolls are held by the state of Israel in the Shrine of the Book on the grounds of the Israel Museum, but ownership of the scrolls is disputed by Jordan and Palestine.
Tel Lachish, known in Arabic as Tell ed-Duweir, is the site of an ancient Near Eastern city, now an archaeological site and an Israeli national park. The Palestinian village of Qobebet Ibn ‘Awwad was also formerly located near the Tel.
Yibna, was a Palestinian village with a population of 5,420 in 1948, located 15 kilometers southwest of Ramla. Yibna was taken by Israeli forces on 4 June 1948, and was depopulated during the military assault and expulsion.
The Copper Scroll (3Q15) is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3 near Khirbet Qumran, but differs significantly from the others. Whereas the other scrolls are written on parchment or papyrus, this scroll is written on metal: copper mixed with about 1 percent tin. The so-called 'scrolls' of copper were, in reality, two separated sections of what was originally a single scroll about 8 feet (240 cm) in length. Unlike the others, it is not a literary work, but a list of 64 places where various items of gold and silver were buried or hidden. It differs from the other scrolls in its Hebrew, its orthography, palaeography and date.
The Israel Museum was established in 1965 as Israel's foremost cultural institution and one of the world’s leading encyclopedic museums. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Leon Levy was an American investor, mutual fund manager, and philanthropist.
David Ussishkin is an Israeli archaeologist and professor emeritus of archaeology.
The Israel Antiquities Authority is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservation, and promotes research. The director-general is Mr. Israel Hason and its offices are housed in the Rockefeller Museum.
Levantine archaeology is the archaeological study of the Levant. It is also known as Syro-Palestinian archaeology or Palestinian archaeology. Current archaeological digs are carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), or else the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Ministry of Tourism and Antiquity, working under the auspices of the IAA. Besides its importance to the discipline of Biblical archaeology, the Levant is highly important when forming an understanding of the history of the earliest peoples of the Stone Age. The Palestinian Authority prohibits unrestricted excavation at sites of archaeological importance.
Avraham Biran was an Israeli archaeologist, best known for heading excavations at Tel Dan in northern Israel. He headed the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem for many years.
Austen St. Barbe Harrison (1891–1976) was a British-born architect. While British, Harrison spent most of his career overseas, and mainly in the Middle East. His works include the British Representative's Residence, Amman, the High Commissioner's Residence, Jerusalem, the Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem, 1935, and Nuffield College, Oxford.
Gerald Lankester Harding was a British archaeologist who was the director of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan from 1936 to 1956. His tenure spanned the period in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and brought to public awareness. Without his efforts many of the scrolls might have disappeared into private collections never to be seen again.
Leo Aryeh Mayer, was an Israeli scholar of Islamic art and rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Samuel Joseph Schweig, in Israel known as Shmuel Yosef Schweig was an Israeli photographer.
Najib Anton Albina was the master photographer of the Palestine Archaeological Museum and, in that position, took the first original sets of photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Through his positions with the American Colony and Palestine Archaeological Museum, he used photography as a means of recording the history of Christian Palestinian culture as well as the discovery of past cultures in the region. He had a significant impact on the techniques of archeological photographers, especially those who took pictures of the Dead Sea Scrolls, through his contributions to the use of infrared photography.
The politics of archaeology in Israel and Palestine refers to the significance of archaeology in the politics and social fabric of Israel and Palestine. Many important developments in Levantine archaeology have occurred within Israel and Palestine.
The Antiquities Law of the State of Israel of 1978 was put in place by Israel to eliminate the problem of illegal activities with artifacts. It serves the purpose of describing the rights and obligations regarding the discovery and ownership of ancient coins or other antiquities in Israel, and the possibility of export of these antiquities. The punishment for breaking this law includes imprisonment for a term of two years or a fine of 100,000 pounds. It nationalized antiquities as an attempt to protect them.
The Jordan Museum is located in Ras Al-Ein district of Amman, Jordan. Built in 2014, the museum is the largest museum in Jordan and hosts the country's most important archaeological findings.
The Department of Antiquities was a department of the British administration of Mandatory Palestine from 1920 to 1948 that was in charge of the protection and investigation of archaeological remains and artefacts in Palestine.
Dimitri Constantine Baramki, often styled D. C. Baramki, was a Palestinian archaeologist who served as chief archaeologist at the Department of Antiquities of the Government of Mandatory Palestine from 1938 to 1948. From 1952 until his retirement, he was the curator of the Archaeological Museum at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where he served as a professor of archaeology.
References
1 2 3 Kletter, Raz. "The Friends of Antiquities: The story of an Israeli volunteer group and comparative remarks". Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 8. Article 2.
↑ Baruch, Yuval; Rachel Kudish-Vashdi. "Historic Background". Rockefeller Museum – The Museum and its Exhibitions. Israel Antiquities Authority.
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