Elie Borowski survived his personal losses and the collective tragedy of Jews in World War II with a belief that humankind can “best achieve ethical and spiritual fulfillment by becoming conscious of its historical origins.”
Borowski’s contribution to making this happen is his lovingly accumulated Lands of the Bible Collection of 1,700 artifacts ranging over 4,000 years of ancient history.
“The Lands of the Bible Collection is a trampoline,” Borowski explains, “that lifts people into a realm of new ideas, new questions and new understandings about the Bible.”
Borowski’s hope is that when people see the ladders-to-heaven seal, the bronze 12th-century B.C. openwork stand, the horned Mesopotamian helmet and the inlay of a god fighting a seven-headed monster, they will be transported to a time before the Bible. Suddenly, through imagination, they will enter the world out of which monotheism emerged—and the Bible will become more understandable.
The provenance of most of the pieces in the Lands of the Bible Collection is unknown. No one will ever be able to pinpoint exactly where the artifacts were found or with what other artifacts and architecture they were associated. They cannot be dated by stratigraphy and context. These pieces came onto the antiquities market either from collectors wishing to sell or from people in the Middle East trained, not to be archaeologists, but to have a keen eye for a marketable commodity.
How then are these uprooted pieces dated? The dating methods are those of the scholar-art historian who meticulously studies the artifacts of diverse cultures and achieves an understanding of the evolution of iconography, of craft techniques, of epigraphic forms and of functional necessities. The art historian enters the sensibilities of ancient civilizations and by knowing their ways is able to identify their artistic products.
In the catalogue that follows, we show only a small sample of the collection that Borowski will give to the State of Israel and that one day will be housed, we hope, in its own museum and study center in Jerusalem.
027
Smiting God
Relief of a Cymbal Player
028
Bronze Amulet
The Marble Sarcophagus of Julia Latronilla
030
A God Fighting a Monster with Seven Heads
031
Spouted Jug
Bronze Stand
033
Clay Funerary Head
034
Woman at Window
035
Incense Shovel
Terracotta Figurine
036
Ivory Decorative Fitting
Bucket Decorated with Six Winged Creatures
038
Horned Helmet
Additional information about the artifacts pictures on the preceding pages and about other of the more that 1,700 pieces in the Lands of the Bible Archaeology Foundation collection may be founding the catalogue of the collection, Ladders to Heaven. This large, attractive volume, illustrated in both color and black and white, is edited by the distinguished senior research fellow Dr. Oscar White Muscarella of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and contains contributions from 26 prominent scholars. All photos in this article are courtesy of the Lands of the Bible Archaeology Foundation.
Elie Borowski survived his personal losses and the collective tragedy of Jews in World War II with a belief that humankind can “best achieve ethical and spiritual fulfillment by becoming conscious of its historical origins.”
You have already read your free article for this month. Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.
