Turmoil at the Harvard Semitic Museum - The BAS Library
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Turmoil at the Harvard Semitic Museum

Did Martin Peretz accuse director Stager of anti-Semitism? Is Peretz guilty of libel?

By Steven Feldman

The entire staff of the Harvard Semitic Museum—home of one of this country’s most important archaeological collections—has been dismissed, leading to a rancorous contretemps concerning the institution’s leadership and its future direction. The ten employees of Harvard’s primary archaeological museum are to be replaced by two new staffers and a part-time secretary. Travelling exhibits will no longer be sent around the country under museum auspices. Its vast collection of 19th-century Middle Eastern photographs is to be dispersed to other Harvard museums. The museum will now feature instead its important archaeological holdings, consisting of over 40,000 artifacts. Under the Harvard […]

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Footnotes

1.

For Stager’s three-part description of the work at Ashkelon, including the discovery of a Canaanite silver calf statuette, see “When Canaanites and Philistines Ruled Ashkelon,” BAR 17:02; “Why Were Hundreds of Dogs Buried at Ashkelon?” BAR 17:03; and “Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon,” BAR 17:04.

2.

They were given a month’s notice to vacate their offices (though they were to be considered university employees until mid-February of this year), and offered a severance package based on years of service and assistance in finding new jobs.