Israel Museum Research Articles

The low profile of the Israel Museum

The low profile of the Israel Museum

Damage to an ancient parchment document by Aspergillus

Damage to the Aleppo Codex (Halab), the earliest Hebrew Old Testament, has been found to have been caused by a member of the genus Aspergillus, rather than fire. The Codex was written on parchment in Tiberias in the tenth century A.D. After a period in Jerusalem and Egypt, it was transferred to a synagogue in Aleppo (Halab), Syria which was set on fire in 1947. It is now on permanent loan to the Israel Museum. The lower corners of all of the pages were found to be aubergine colored, brittle, and breaking away. Examination of fragments from the damaged areas with phase-contrast and fluorescence microscopy revealed the presence of septate, hyphalike filaments. However, similar filamentous structures were not observed in fragments from undamaged areas of the manuscript. The filaments in damaged regions were found with a specific fluorescent antobody stain to be Aspergillus hyphae.

Art libraries in Israel

The Israel Museum Library at Jerusalem is Israel’s largest art library; it maintains the Archive of Israeli Art and an index of periodicals and it serves a national audience. It is complemented by other museum, university, and college libraries, and by the public library network.

Islamic Painting in the Israel Museum, by Rachel Milstein with contributions by Na‘ama Brosh. 220 pages, 60 color, 70 black-and-white ills., glossary, bibliography, index, map. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem1984.

Islamic Painting in the Israel Museum, by Rachel Milstein with contributions by Na‘ama Brosh. 220 pages, 60 color, 70 black-and-white ills., glossary, bibliography, index, map. The Israel Museum, Jerusalem1984.

Presentation of Vision '67

Introduction by Victor Margolin Willem Sandberg was a man of many talents. Born in Amersfoort, Holland, in 1897, he studied art in Amsterdam as a young man; became a follower of Mazdaznan, the spiritual movement that also attracted Johannes Itten; and then traveled extensively in Europe. In 1927, he visited Vienna. There he studied the Isotype system of pictorial statistics developed by Otto Neurath. Sandberg then visited the Dessau Bauhaus and spent several months in Berlin where he met and became a close friend of Naum Gabo among others. After returning to Amsterdam, Sandberg gradually became active as a graphic designer. He had no formal training in design, but his early art training and his familiarity with Neurath's pictorial statistics, as well as a brief apprenticeship with a printer in Herrliberg, Switzerland, during his Mazdaznan days, prepared him for his first commission: a calendar for the publishing house Ploegsma. His initial contact with the Stedelijk Museum came in 1928 when he was asked to design pictorial statistics for the museum's exhibition Work for the Disabled. In 1932, Sandberg was invited to become a member of VANK, the Dutch Society for Arts and Crafts, leading him to join a Stedelijk Museum committee that recommended alternating exhibitions of applied art with those of painting and sculpture. After several consulting projects with the Stedelijk, Sandberg became the museum's curator of modern art from 1937 to 1941. After the war, he was named director of the museum and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1962. While at the Stedelijk, Sandberg expanded the collections of painting and sculpture and developed many new exhibition techniques that were widely adopted internationally. In addition to his curatorial responsibilities, he designed more than 300 catalogs and many posters for the museum's exhibitions. These were not only landmarks in museum publication design, but also were some of the most thoughtful and tasteful graphic designs done in the postwar years. Following his retirement from the Stedelijk, Sandberg was active in many projects at home and abroad, including the international advisory committee for the Beaubourg in Paris and the executive committee for the new Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The following talk, presented on October 19, 1967, is taken as is from the original mimeographed copy as circulated at the Vision '67 conference sponsored by the International Center for the Communication Arts and Sciences in New York City. It is printed with the kind permission of the International Center for the Typographic Arts.

1. A NEAR EASTERN BRIDLE BIT OF THE SECOND MILLENNIUM B.C. IN NEW YORK

In a recent issue of this journal we published a bronze horse bit with a solid bar mouthpiece and circular cheekpieces, pre~ently in the Israel Museum, j erusalem.1 Although the provenance and history of the object are unknown, it was presumably made during the second half of the second millennium B.C., somewhere in the Near East, and possibly in the Levant. Since then another cast bronze bit of related type has come to light in the collection of the Department of Classics of New York University (PI. XLII).2 Although the provenance of this bit is also unknown, it is suggested that it came from the Cesnola Collection. It may have been among the Nine small objects, implements etc. of bronze acquired among other (identified) itenlS by the University from the Cesnola Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1925. They are listed under Cypriot duplicate sales in the Museum's records.3 Since Cesnola was collecting during the second half of the nineteenth century, when no bits of this type had been published, it is most unlikely that it is a forgery or a pastiche. Moveover, its utilitarian character with only simple decoration would not be apt to tempt a forger. Autopsy appears to show that the piece is genuine and as originally assembled. The analysis (see Appendix) indicates that both cheekpieces and the mouthpiece are low tin bronzes; this is a standard second millennium B.C. bronze composition. The bit is composed of a solid-bar mouthpiece and two circular cheekpieces. The mouthpiece (overall L.: c. 0'19 m., within cheekpieces: c. 0'135 m.; Diam. at centre: c. o· 006 m.) is round in section and relatively thick. It displays a slight curvature in the same

A Winged Goddess of Wine on an Electrum Plaque

In 1968 the Bezalel National Museum of Jerusalem, Israel — now incorporated into the Israel Museum — acquired a small but splendid and significant piece of ancient jewellery. As it came from the art-market in New York, it is thus unfortunately without provenance. I now publish it by kind permission of the Chief Curator of Archaeology, Mrs. Miriam Tadmor, and the Curator of the Department of Neighbouring Cultures, Mrs. Rivka Merhav.Here is, first, the technical description of the piece.A figure representing a goddess, nude, four-winged and facing frontally is holding in each hand a bunch of grapes. She is raised in relief from the background of an almost square electrum plaque, framed by a plaited wire border set between plain wire on each side. The frame is decorated on each of its four sides with large globules, numbering eight in all, surrounded by granulation. The goddess formerly had long hair falling in two locks of coiled wire one each side of her face (one of these — that on the right, which showed signs of being melted, has been lost before the object first appeared on the market, presumably in antiquity (Plates VIII, IXa)).

Dead Sea Scroll parchments: unfolding of the collagen molecules and racemization of aspartic acid

The parchments of the Dead Sea Scrolls were prepared from the skins of animals, mainly sheep and goats1,2. They were copied and hidden between the beginning of the first century BC and AD 703. Since then and until their discovery in the late 1940s by local Bedouins, they were located in caves close to the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea4. Having been handled by various intermediaries for periods of up to 8 yr, most of the intact scrolls are housed in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. We have examined small pieces (≲25 mm2) from these scrolls, together with random fragments without any writing, to study some of the chemical changes which have occurred in the past 2,000 yr or so. Using X-ray diffraction and racemization analyses, we found that a major degradative change is due to the unfolding of the collagen molecules to form gelatin and that the degradation generally occurred many centuries ago.

The Jerusalem ship reconsidered

International Journal of Nautical ArchaeologyVolume 6, Issue 4 p. 349-352 The Jerusalem ship reconsidered Magen Broshi, Magen Broshi The Israel Museum, JerusalemSearch for more papers by this author Magen Broshi, Magen Broshi The Israel Museum, JerusalemSearch for more papers by this author First published: November 1977 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.1977.tb01035.xCitations: 4AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume6, Issue4November 1977Pages 349-352 RelatedInformation

Oil from the Presses of Tirat-Yehuda

In 1970 the Israel Museum reconstructed a late 2nd-century B.C.E. oil-press on the southern slope of the Rehavia Valley. The press was discovered in 1962, during excavations conducted by the Department of Antiquities and Museums and directed by Z. Yeivin and G. Edelstein, in the area of a fortified farm in Tirat-Yehudah. Under the supervision of Y. Mintzker and the excavators, D. Urman directed the reconstruction, which revealed some of the problems the ancient olive-pressers presumably faced.

Royal Judean Storage Jars and Private Seal Impressions

The present excavation project at Tell Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir) was started in 1973 by the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University and the Israel Exploration Society with the support of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in New York, the Wolfson Foundation in London, and other public bodies. One of the three selected areas was the complex Judean city gate (Area G), which is still being excavated under the supervision of Y. Eshel. So far, efforts have been concentrated on uncovering the left, northern half of the inner gatehouse of (J. L. Starkey's) Level III. The inner gatehouse consists of six chambers, three on each side, and seems to be larger in size than similar gates at other sites. The gatehouse was totally destroyed by fire. The excavation of this area produced two royal Judean storage jars, Type 484 according to Olga Tufnell's division (1953: 315-16), which form the starting point of our discussion. The first storage jar was discovered in 1974 in a room (Locus 4014) which apparently served as a storeroom, situated behind and adjacent to the Level III gate. The room produced much pottery, mainly storage jars, all of which were crushed when the gatehouse was destroyed. Our storage jar, no. 10074, was badly damaged by the conflagration but it could be reconstructed (fig. 1) and is now exhibited in the Israel Museum (no. 75-244). The storage jar has two handles positioned adjacent to each other with royal stamps of the two-winged type (Diringer's Class III). The third handle carries a private stamp, while the fourth handle is plain (fig. 2). The handles have a protruding central rib along which the royal stamps were impressed, but in a very careless manner. As a result, the symbol is quite clear but the inscription above and below the symbol is missing. The private stamp is round, ca. 11 mm. in diameter, and a central dividing line which separates the two lines of the inscription can clearly be distinguished. The rest is blurred. Remains of letters can be discerned, but the reading is doubtful and obscure.

A Late Egyptian Statue from the Eastern Delta

This limestone block-statue, 0.30 cm. high, is registered as No. 67.30.426 in the Israel Museum. For a time it was in the Cairo Museum; later it was with an antiquities dealer in New York, whence it entered a private collection. It was probably then that the upper right part of the head was repaired. The collector donated the object to the Israel Museum.1 The statue shows a seated man covered by a mantle, except for the head, feet, and hands, which are shown in flat relief. The man wears a striated wig which leaves the ears free. The head is slightly raised.2 There are eight rows of inscription on the front of the garment; the rows are divided by single lines. The back pillar has a vertical inscription in five columns, also with dividing lines. The inscriptions are damaged in various places: in the horizontal inscription, the beginnings and ends of several rows have suffered; in the vertical text, there is extensive damage in the upper part. Some of this damage seems to have occurred after Daressy and Borchardt had copied the inscription; restorations which seem feasible according to that copy have been put in single backets in text and translation.

Recent Excavations at Nahal Oren, Israel

The site of Nahal Oren is 10 km south of Haifa in the Wadi Fellah at its junction with the old Tel Aviv-Haifa road, Israel.The first excavations at Nahal Oren were made by Professor Stekelis in 1941, when the cave was emptied; a Natufian industry was found (Stekelis 1942). In 1954–9 there were further excavations in front of the cave (Stekelis and Yisraeli 1963). Numerous fine artefacts indicated the presence of two phases of the Kebaran, Natufian and ‘pre Pottery Neolithic A and B’ industries. The well known complex of house foundations on artificial platforms or terraces was exposed during this work.The industrial succession indicated that the site was suitable for the study of late Palaeolithic cultures and their associated economies. The recent excavations, supported by the British Museum and carried out by Cambridge University and the Israel Museum, had the following objectives: to attempt the total collection of artefacts from restricted areas, to establish the relevant stratigraphy, and to collect a broad spectrum of organic remains, by methods developed by the British Academy's Major Research Project, the History of Early Agriculture.

Museums in Israel

Museums in Israel

The Youth Wing of the Israel Museum

The Youth Wing of the Israel Museum

The Art Museums of Israel

From the publicity attending the opening of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem last May—a full-page ad in the New York Times brashly affirmed that it was “born great”—people abroad might well have inferred that this was the country's first museum. Yet, though it is the largest and most beautiful, it is, by Israel Century Saving Time, a latecomer. Before it there was a museum in Dan, two in Beersheba, and, beyond that ancient limit, two more in Eilat, which was only a pair of mud huts for United Nations observers when the state of Israel was established 17 years ago. There are today some one hundred museums in art, archeology, science and technology, natural and political history, ethnology, medicine, music. Most of them were built during the past 17 years. Though it ranks lowest in many natural resources, Israel must stand highest of any country in the world in the ratio of museums to population (1: 25,000).