1r) THE TINIBERLIND SHOP
Bible Museum
Preserves Cultures
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Special to The Jewish News
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0
ould the bronze head-
dress with the detach-
able horns have
crowned a divine statue from
Mesopotamia in Abraham's
day, or perhaps been worn by
a priest or priestess in the
course of some long forgotten
ritual?
"Unfortunately ancient ar-
tifacts come with no identify-
ing labels," says Dr. Joan
Goodnick Westenholz, curator
of the Bible Lands Museum.
But whatever purpose the
headdress served, it will cer-
tainly take center stage,
along with dozens of other
unusual and exciting ancient
relics, at the Museum.
Across from the Knesset
and the Israel Museum, the
building is an unusual com-
bination of Jerusalem stone
and glass built on a hillside.
The upper floor contains the
galleries and the lower floor
a 230-seat auditorium, a tem-
porary exhibition hall, a
library, research and study
rooms, laboratories, and an
open-air Hellenistic Theater
and Roman Court adorned
with exquisite Byzantine
mosaics.
Attempting to give an in-
sight into the lives of all the
peoples who have inhabited
the lands of the Bible, the
museum, according to Clif-
ford LaFontaine, its exhibi-
tion designer, is to "show the
similarities between the
various cultures, not only the
differences. For example," he
says, "people of many
cultures in the ancient Near
East worried whether they
would go hungry in the next
world." Reliefs from an an-
cient Egyptian tomb and
some neo-Hittite stelae (com-
memorative inscribed pillars
or slabs) from the ninth cen-
tury BCE both show their
owners seated before piles of
bread, a scene meant to
guarantee them an abun-
dance of food in the afterlife.
Also intended as a center of
research and education on the
biblical region, the museum
will hold complimentary
educational programs, in-
cluding study collections for
traveling exhibitions and pro-
grams for students of all ages.
The exhibition is designed
for the visitor to walk
through the civilizations in
historical order from the
Neolithic period, 6,000 BCE,
to the Byzantine, 600 CE.
Most of the 3,000 objects and
funding for the museum were
donated by Dr. Elie and Batya
Borowski of Toronto and
Jerusalem. Dr. Borowski
began assembling the collec-
tion toward the end of the Se-
cond World War when he con-
cluded that mankind had lost
its connection with the
morals and ethics of the Bible.
The curator and staff con-
tinue steadily cataloguing
the museum's artifacts, which
include cylinder seals from
the Jemdet Nasr and early
dynastic periods, a
3,000-year-old broken comb
that may have belonged to a
Persian nomad, and a
priestess' gold and lapis
necklace from the royal
Tombs of Ur.
"Pots and pans from ar-
chaeological sites won't reveal
the mysteries of modern
man," notes Dr. Westenholz.
"We have to research,
organize, display and
decipher objects, then place
each one in its cultural
historical context."
In a nearby room, Orna
Cohen uses dental in-
Relics are repaired
so they won't
crumble or break
while on display.
struments to painstakingly
repair a 3,000-year-old ivory
plaque depicting two bulls
separated by the tree of life.
"Relics are repaired so they
won't crumble or break while
on display," she notes.
On the exhibition floor, Mr.
La Fontaine has displayed
all paintings from Egyptian
tombs and a false door from
the late sixth dynasty, an in-
tegral part of Old Kingdom
tombs. Through this door, ac-
cording to the inscription, the
spirit passes to receive "A
thousand each of bread, beer,
cake, oxen, geese . ."
In the gallery depicting in-
terconnections during the
third millennium BCE (pre-
patriarchal period), Dr.
Westenholz has placed
miniature bronze • models of
bulls pulling carts, as well as
cylinder seals presenting
scenes of land and maritime
transport. "These illustrate
how people traveled and trad-
ed in the ancient world," she
says.
While many enigmas about
these biblical objects may re-
main unsolved forever, "The
museum hopes to reawaken
our awareness of the impor-
tance of the Bible in our
lives," says Dr. Borowski
hopefully. ❑ WZPS