Monday, 19th September, 2016

A day of ‘taking it easy’ today, although that is a decidedly relative term compared to buses and taxis (and irritating taxi drivers – see Bethlehem post!). It was still a fullish day, but spent in the air-conditioned comfort of the Israel Musem.

This was built in 1965 and renovated in 2010 and has a spacious, modern feel about it. There is a very long corridor to start with, so long, we were offered a lift! The statue in the middle is by Rodin.

The exhibits are well described (in Hebrew, Arabic and English) and displayed well. There are 3 main wings in the museum proper – archaeology, Jewish art and life and a fine arts wing. We started with the archaeological wing, which is the largest part of the museum and cover the area of Israel (known as the Land) from as far back as 1.5 million BC and covering all the different influences of the area such as the Canaanites, early Israelites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptians, Philistines (yes, they did have a culture, but not a very good marketing department), the Seleucids (inheritors of Alexander the Great’s empire – or part of it at least) who brought Greek living to the area, then the rule from Judea by the Hasmonean Jews until the Romans arrived, then the Byzantine period, the arrival of the Islamic rulers and the Crusader interlude finishing in the 16th Century with Suleiman the Magnificent and the Mamelukes (Ottoman Turks). There you go, a very brief history of the Holy Land/Israel/Palestine. If your particular empire/invading horde has been left out Incan only apologise.

I always get a bit jittery about archaeological museums as they sometimes seem to be full of fragments and you have to try to picture the real thing from a tiny shard of a vase. Not so the Israel Musem. Whilst sometimes difficult to follow the exhibits in a chronological sequence (better signposting would help) there is plenty of fascinating stuff from mummies (see Val below) to beautiful glassware, jewellery, ceramics and textiles with plenty of background history to go with it. Some examples….. I particularly like the second and third photos if only for the wonderful expressions.

We next looked at the Jewish Art and Life wing the highlights of which were, for me, the complete reconstruction of synagogues from Venice, Cochin in India, Germany and Suriname plus an 18th Century Parisian salon donated by the Rothschilds and a Georgian English dining room.

There was also an exhibition of Yemeni women’s jewellery (largely crafted by Jewish silversmiths) and headdresses which were beautiful. I will let the photos do the talking, as best they can.

There is a very good fine arts wing too, which we visited, but the photos don’t really do it justice. So next we made our way to the Shrine of the Book which is a stunning building that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls. The design represents the jars in which the scrolls were discovered with the part above ground being the lid and with a huge black granite wall contrasting with the white dome to reflect the decisive battle between the Children of Darkness and the Children of Light described in the War Scroll (and being the first draft for the Star Wars films!).

The first seven scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin goatherd looking for a lost goat at Qumran at the northwestern end of the Dead Sea. Over the next two decades fragments of some 800 more were uncovered dating from the 3rd Century BC to AD68 some containing the oldest existing versions of biblical scriptures. Sadly you cannot take photos inside the building, which is well worth a visit in its own right.

A very good day out, though possibly not the restful day needed for our next big adventure tomorrow on which more soon.