Rockefeller Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rockefeller Museum, (original name: The Palestine Archaeological Museum) is located in East Jerusalem, Northeast of the Old City in Israel and houses a vast collection of regional archeology unearthed in excavations conducted in the country mainly during the time of the British Mandate (1919–1948). The museum opened in 1938.
In 1925, James Henry Breasted, founder and director of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, visited Palestine, and was surprised to discover Jerusalem's lack of a proper archaeological museum.
Encouraged by Lord Plumer, the British High Commissioner, Breasted approached American philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. for a donation that would help to construct such a museum in Jerusalem.
Rockefeller agreed to contribute toward the project the sum of two million dollars—at that time an astonishing amount. Rockefeller had previously wanted to donate money for an archeological museum in Egypt. For unexplained reasons, Rockefeller's offer was turned down.
A short while after the announcement of the donation, a site was chosen for the building—Kerem el-Sheik—a hill located just outside the northeastern corner of the Old City walls.
The design of the museum was assigned to Austen St. Barbe Harrison, the chief architect of the Mandatory Department of Public Works, who planned a magnificent, white limestone structure, integrating in it eastern and western architectural elements.
The cornerstone of the new museum was laid on June 19, 1930 and the doors were opened to the public on January 13, 1938.
Although its official name was "The Palestine Archaeological Museum," from the very outset the building was most commonly known as "The Rockefeller Museum".
The museum was run by an international board of trustees until 1966, when it was nationalized by King Hussein of Jordan. Not long after the Jordanian government assumed control, the museum fell to Israeli control as a consequence of the 1967 Six-Day War.
The management of the building and its contents is entrusted to two institutions: The Israel Museum and the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (later renamed Israel Antiquities Authority). Sadly, due to the political situation, the museum is seldom visited.
The museum's first curator was John H. Iliffe. He arranged artifacts in chronological order, from two million years ago to 1700 CE. Prized possessions include 8th-century wooden panels from the al-Aqsa Mosque and 12th-century (Crusader-period) marble lintels from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The collection is based on finds unearthed during the early years of archaeological activity in the country (1890–1948) in Jerusalem, Megiddo, Ashkelon, Lachish, Samaria, and Jericho.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were kept here for short periods of time during excavations in the Qumran valleys.
