TREASURES OF PALESTINE

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 3

TREASURES OF PALESTINE

A NEW MUSEUM (From ‘The Times.’) Some five years after the end of the Great War Mr John D. Rockefeller, jun., offered the Egyptian Government a very large sum of money to build a worthy Egyptian Museum in Cairo. On account of certain conditions the Egyptian Government did not feel itself free to accept the offer. By the intervention of the late Professor James Breasted and of Professor J. Garstang, at that time Director of Antiquities in Palestine, Mr Rockefeller was then led to offer the Government of Palestine 2,000,000d0l for a museum to house the antiquities of the Holy Land. At that time the Government Department of Antiquities was lodged in, a hired house with three rooms, where a few objects were visible to the_ public in inadequate light. The Administration was thinking of something better, but with the expenditure of not more than a few thousand pounds. The generosity of Mr Rockefeller endowed the Holy Land with a museum worthy of its part in the history of humanity. The Government undertook to provide the land and not to spend less on the Department of Antiquities than it would have done had there been no bequest. An Internaional Archaeological Advisory Board was established as a consultative- body. A site was found at the north-eastern corner of the city, commanding a magnificent view of the Mount of Olives, the Dome of the Bock, and of the mountains of Transjordan. The area comprises about 10 acres, of which about a quarter is occupied by the present building. The rest has been planted with 250 olive trees, over 50 years old, which were moved, with great precautions, from the famous olive groves of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. A TALENTED ARCHITECT. The Government was singularly fortunate in possessing in Mr Austen St. B. Harrison, an architect who knew how to design a building both suited to the genius of the country and adapted to the needs it must serve. The museum is a central rectangular block, flanked on north and south by triangular buildings which are built around open courts. The centre of the rectangle is an arcaded patio, in the middle of which is a sunk ornamenMl pool with goldfish and red and yellow water lilies. A hedge of lavender forms a border. Beween the arches of the arcade are a brilliant series of 10 reliefs carved in the stone, the work of Mr Eric Gill. They represent 10 cultural influences in the life of Palestine, from the times of the Canaanites to those of the Crusaders. _ At the north end of the patio there is an alcove containing a fountain in a modernistic style inspired by Arab models. This alcove is decorated with enamelled tiles and mosaics specially made in Jerusalem by the Armenian potter, Mr David Ohannessian, who brought the art to the city from Kutahia in the early days of the British occupation, at the suggestion of the late Sir Mark Sykes. The entrance hall is surmounted by an octagonal tower. The building is of Palestinian stone hewed, from a quarry, specially opened up by Mr Harrison, seven miles down the Jericho road, and prepared by the famous local craftsmen. The wood is Anatolian walnut, purchased in the Damascus market. There is accommodation for staffs and a special wing for the library. This already contains 16,000 volumes, and space has been reserved for another 30,000. The public galleries display only the choicest and most representative objects of each period; but they are doubled by galleries in which a far greater mass of material is accessible to students. There is a lecture theatre; the basement is designed for the housing of antiquities until their 1 final disposal.Since the purpose of the foundation is the study of the past of man in Palestine, the exhibits in the public galleries are being arranged chronologically, affording a visible synopsis’ of Palestinian history. * To eliminate “ Museum fatigue ” as far as possible the floors have been paved with resilient cork blocks. Visitors can borrow a catalogue containing the description of each exhibit in the gallery, in the three languages. It has been difficult to find equivalents in Arabic and Hebrew for the technical terms of archaeology. JEZEBEL’S IVORY HOUSE. Only one of the principal galleries will be ready for public, inspection at the opening ceremony. It will contain the splendid collection of pottery of the Stone and Bronze Ages, (from* the earliest times until the close of the Canaanitish period. There will also be a special exhibition of the remarkable plaster work of the early Arab period. This is mostly derived from the palace of the eighth-century Omeyyad Caliph Hisham, which was recently discovered near Jericho. On© of the most notable exhibits is the very ancient human skull found in Galilee in 1925, the first relic of Neanderthal man brought to light in Palestine; its discovery inaugurated a period of intense and fruitful research in this field. Much interest is sure to be shown in the ivories discovered, in 1933-35, in the palace of King Ahab at Samaria. No doubt such objects served in part for the decoration of furniture which caused the reference to the building of the “ ivory house ” in the Book of Kings (1 Kings xxii, 39). The juxtaposition of Egyptian and Assyrian styles in these ivories confirms what the Bible has to say on the foreign influences at work in the capital of the Kingdom of Israel at that time. The beauty of the workmanship is proof of the luxury and artistic sensibility ■of the people _of Tyre, for Queen Jezebel was a Tyrian princess and the ivories probably came from a workshop in her father’s kingdom. The museum contains objects of the Roman, Byzantine, and Arab periods. Under the terms of the Antiquities Ordinance the museum does not deal with objects made after 1700, a definiion of antiquities suggested in Article 21 of the* Mandate.