Eretz Israel Museum


The Eretz Israel Museum is a historical and archaeological museum in the Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel.
Image:Maurice Ascalon Menorah Pal-Bell.jpg|thumb|150px|From an exhibit of Judaica at the Eretz Israel Museum, a bronze menorah designed by Maurice Ascalon
Eretz Israel Museum, established in 1953 as the Haaretz Museum, has a large display of archaeological, anthropological and historical artifacts organized in a series of exhibition pavilions on its grounds. Each pavilion is dedicated to a different subject: glassware, ceramics, coins, copper and more. The museum also has a planetarium.
The "Man and His Work" wing features live demonstrations of ancient methods of weaving, jewelry and pottery making, grain grinding and bread baking. Tel Qasile, an excavation in which 12 distinct layers of culture have been uncovered, is on the grounds of the museum.

Museum history

The museum was established by the city of Tel Aviv in 1953. Its collection began with glass and ceramics donated by Walter Moses.
In 1981 Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, pressured the museum's board of directors to appoint Rehavam Ze'evi as museum director. Ze'evi was director of the museum from 1981 to 1989, was chairman of its board from 1989 to 1994 and remained a board member until 1999. During his tenure $11 million the city invested in the museum, new buildings were created, and staff numbers grew, although visitor numbers declined. The construction works led to the destruction of a Byzantine mosaic on the museum grounds, for which Ze'evi was interviewed by the police.

Archaeology

Ancient copper production

The Nechushtan pavilion is dedicated to the copper production at Timna in the southern Negev during the Chalcolithic, Bronze and Iron Age periods. The pavilion contains a reconstructed mine, smelting furnaces, and findings from the Egyptian-Midianite mining temple at Timna.
The reconstructed Chalcolithic and Late Bronze Age mine displays mining tools such as stone hammers, flint blades and copper chisels, as well as the typical marks they left on the rock.
Four smelting furnaces are on display:
  • Bowl furnace from the Chalcolithic period
  • Domed furnace of the Late Bronze Age
  • Authentic Late Bronze Age furnace
  • Shaft furnace of the Iron Age.

    Midianite temple pavilion

In the 14th century BCE, the Egyptian pharaohs dispatched mining expeditions to Timna. Alongside expert metalsmiths from the Land of Midian, they extracted copper at Timna until the early 12th century BCE. This pavilion houses a Midianite temple model. Of special interest is the copper snake with gilded head found in the Midianite shrine, reminding of the biblical Nehushtan, "the bronze serpent that Moses had made".

Glass pavilion

This pavilion exhibits ancient glass vessels. The exhibition is divided into three sections, representing three eras in the history of glass production: pre-blown glass, blown glass of the Roman and Byzantine periods, and blown glass of the Islamic period. Two rare vessels on display are a delicate drinking horn with two openings, known by its Greek name "rhyton", and "Ennion's Blue Jug" bearing the signature of its famous maker, who lived in the first half of the 1st century CE.
Remnants of a glass furnace from the 13th century CE were discovered alongside the Crusader castle at Sommelaria, north of Acre.
On loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority is a unique Byzantine gold-glass panel from the "Birds Mosaic Mansion" in Caesarea.

Ethnography and folklore

The ethnography and folklore section contains Judaica produced either by the Jewish diaspora in different periods, or in the Land of Israel between 1880 and 1967.

Numismatics

The Kadman Numismatic section displays means of payment used in the country, starting those used before to the development of coinage, and going through all historical periods until today.

Postal history and philately

The Alexander Museum of Postal History and Philately recounts the history of postal service in the Land of Israel from the mid-15th century until the founding of the state in 1948. On display are envelopes, letters, photographs, posters, mailboxes and telephones, as well as a mail truck from 1949.
The philatelic wing displays valuable and rare stamps.