The Rockefeller Museum, formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum, is an archaeological museum located in East Jerusalem that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the excavations conducted in Palestine beginning in the late 19th century.

Visiting Palestine in 1925, during the days of the British Mandate, James Henry Breasted, founder and director of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, was surprised to discover that Jerusalem lacked a proper archaeological museum to house important regional finds.

Encouraged by Lord Plumer, the British High Commissioner, Breasted approached American philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr.Rockefeller agreed to donate the sum of two million dollars, which was an enormous amount of money in those days. Previously, he had offered to build an archeological museum in Cairo, Egypt, 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.

A short while after the donation was announced, a site was chosen for the building—Kerem el-Sheik—a hill located just outside the northeastern corner of the Old City walls.

The museum was designed by Austen St. Barbe Harrison, chief architect of the Mandatory Department of Public Works, who drew up blueprints for an impressive white limestone building integrating eastern and western architectural elements.

The cornerstone of the new museum was laid on June 19, 1930, although it only opened to the public on January 13, 1938.

Officially, it was called the Palestine Archaeological Museum, but from the outset it was 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. Soon after, the 1967 Six-Day War broke out and control of the museum fell into Israeli hands. During the war, the building was captured by Israeli soldiers and its hexagonal tower was used as a lookout. Fierce fighting took place here between Israeli and Jordanian forces, ending in an Israeli victory and the reunification of East and West Jerusalem. Since then, the museum has been been jointly managed by the Israel Museum and the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (later renamed Israel Antiquities Authority).

The museum’s first curator was John H. Iliffe, who arranged the artifacts in chronological order, from two million years ago to 1700 CE. 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.

The collection is based on finds from the early years of archaeological excavation in the region(1890–1948). On display are artifacts unearthed in Jerusalem, Megiddo, Ashkelon, Lachish, Samaria, and Jericho.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were stored here briefly during the excavations in Qumran.

Further reading

• Memoirs, David Rockefeller, New York: Random House, 2002.

External links

• The Rockefeller Museum
• Rockefeller Archaeological Museum at ilMuseums.com

References

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