On a beautiful autumn day, a group of visitors strolled in the courtyard of the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in East Jerusalem, admiring its elegant layout, featuring fountains and colonnades in the shadow of its imposing octagonal dome.

As the visitors enjoyed looking at the impressive archaeological artifacts spanning centuries, the tour guide invited the group to a corner of a colonnade, directing their attention to a modest stone set on a low pedestal.

“This stone includes a reference to one of the earliest events described both in the Bible and in additional sources,” the guide, Itay Gat, told the visitors, including this reporter. “Thanks to this stone that refers to [Pharaoh] Shoshenq I’s raid [against the Kingdom of Judah] in 930 BCE, we can tie the Egyptian chronology to the events in the Bible, and know when they happened.”

Little from the stone’s location or accompanying sign would suggest its prominence, the tour guide noted.

“This is really what the Rockefeller Museum is,” Gat said. “Everything we know about archaeology in the land of Israel is connected to its exhibit and the 60,000 findings in its storage.”

While the public can enjoy one of the most impressive archaeological collections in the country — albeit for limited hours — the future of the Rockefeller remains unclear, with authorities discussing the possibility of handing it over to private ownership and even turning it into a hotel.

The museum was completely closed to the public for almost two years after the Israel Antiquities Authority moved its headquarters from the compound to the new Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel.

In July, the Old City’s Tower of David Museum spearheaded a new initiative, organizing weekly group tours of the nearby Rockefeller Archaeological Museum. Visitors need to sign up in advance; an English tour is held about once a month.

Among the unique items on display at the museum are a statue of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III, dating back to the 12th century BCE, found in Beth Shean, the only example of Egyptian monumental statuary discovered in Israel. Visitors can also view an almost complete 100,000-year-old skeleton of an early Sapiens, unique jewelry and pottery excavated in the land spanning thousands of years and stunning wooden and marble decorations that were taken down years ago during renovation works at the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

For almost 20 years, the museum was also home to most of the legendary Dead Sea Scrolls, which were later moved to the Israel Museum. The library where scholars once examined them and conducted their research still stands full of empty bookshelves, antiquated wooden tables and chairs.

Much like the Shoshenq stone, the museum also lies mostly forgotten in a corner of Jerusalem. Despite being located just a few steps from the Old City, near Herod’s Gate, the museum is in the Palestinian part of the city, which many Israeli and international visitors tend to avoid.

As Gat highlighted, the Rockefeller Museum fully embodies Jerusalem’s vicissitudes over the past century.

Its story began in the 1920s when, as the tour guide put it, “the British decided that it would be an interesting idea to keep the antiquities and the archeological findings where they were found instead of bringing them home.”

In previous decades, the most valuable findings from the first European archaeological expeditions around the world were brought back to the motherland and displayed in museums in Paris and London.

British........

© The Times of Israel