ROCKEFELLER MUSEUM

ROCKEFELLER MUSEUM, name popularly given to the Palestine Archaeological Museum built in Jerusalem during the British Mandatory Administration from a gift of $1,000,000 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who also gave another $1,000,000 as an endowment fund. The building, designed by Austen St. B. Harrison, with stone plaques designed by Eric Gill around the central court, stands in about ten acres of land facing the northeast corner of the Old City walls. In addition to exhibition space, accommodation was provided for study galleries, record offices, a library, auditorium, photographic studio, workrooms, laboratories, storage rooms, and the offices of the Department of Antiquities. An ancient cemetery was discovered on the site, and a number of tombs were excavated, dating from the fifth century B.C.E. to the sixth century C.E. The museum was opened to the public in 1938. During the Mandatory administration, the building and museum were administered by the Government Department of Antiquities. Before the termination of the mandate in 1948, the building was entrusted to an international board. In November 1966, however, the government of Jordan nationalized the museum and took possession of the building and its contents. After the Six-Day War (June 1967), the Israeli government entrusted the building and its contents to the Israel Department of Antiquities, which invited the Israel Museum to operate the exhibition galleries. The exhibition is arranged chronologically, starting with the Stone Age, through the historical periods, to the year 1700 C.E. The exhibits include material from all the important excavations before 1948. Some of the highlights are the Galilee Skull, and prehistoric skeletons from the Mt. Carmel caves; the head of a statue in unbaked clay, painted and with inlaid shell eyes, from Jericho: a pottery mold for casting bronze implements and weapons from Sheḥem (Nablus); a decorated ewer with dedicatory inscriptions from a temple of Lachish; ivory carvings from Samaria and Megiddo; the lachish ostraca; Phoenician and Persian objects; Roman statues; Jewish ossuaries; and a representative collection of pottery and glass of all periods. (Avraham Biran)