Destinations: In Pursuit of the Elusive Bird Mosaic

My mother loves archaeology. If you want to know how much, walk into the Israel Museum’s archaeology galleries, where the “Treasure of the Judean Desert” is on display, and look at a picture of her as a kerchief-clad 19-year-old, smiling alongside the legendary archaeologist Pesach Bar-Adon as they admire a spectacular find. She looks happy, and a little astonished. My mother first came to Israel in 1960, when Bar-Adon was seeking volunteers to help test his theory that ancient civilizations had, indeed, survived in the desert by living in caves. Having organized a crew, he set off for Qumran […]