Museum Guide

071

Collegeville, PA

The City of David: Discoveries from the Excavations

March 8–June 30, 1991

The City of David, located just south of the Temple Mount, was the earliest Jerusalem, original site of King David’s capital after he captured it from the Jebusites in about 1000 B.C. The 275 objects in this exhibit, shown outside Jerusalem for the first time, were unearthed between 1978 and 1985 by Yigal Shiloh, who directed the dig until its conclusion only two years before his death at age 50. The exhibit reconstructs the history of the City of David from 3000 B.C. to 70 A.D. On view are pottery, coins, inscriptions, statuettes, figurines and arrowheads. A highlight is the 53 bullae, or clay seal impressions, two bearing names mentioned in the Bible including Baruch, the prophet Jeremiah’s scribe. Photographs of various stages of the excavations, which included the clearing of Jerusalem’s earliest water supply system-Warren’s Shaft and tunnels-and the exposure of the steppedstone structure, probably a massive substructure for King David’s acropolis, complement the artifacts.

The exhibit, prepared as a tribute to Yigal Shiloh, will travel to the Harvard University Semitic Museum, Cambridge, Mass. (Fall 1991); Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, Penn. (Aug.–Oct. 1991); the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ont. (dates to be announced); the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Mississippi State University, Miss. (Jan. 6–April 30, 1992); and the Skirball Museum, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, Calif (Jan.–March 1993).

The Berman Museum is located in southeastern Pennsylvania, 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia and 100 miles southwest of New York City.

Chicago, IL

Another Egypt

Through June 30, 1991

“Another Egypt” documents the little-known seventh- and eighth-century 074Christians who lived within the abandoned 12th-century B.C. mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu in Thebes (modernday Luxor). Liturgical objects found there and at the nearby monastery of Epiphanius attest to the inhabitants’ Christian faith: metal and mother-of-pearl crosses; an ostracon (an inscribed potsherd) with the names of the apostles from the Gospel of Matthew; and a dove-shaped bronze lamp. Tax receipts on clay, stamped clay jar scalings and amphora handles testify to day-to-day activities. The community, perhaps because of high taxes or overcrowding, disbanded in the eighth century.

California

Gold of Greece: Jewelry and Ornaments from the Benaki Museum

Through March 31, 1991

April 20–June 30, 1991

See Museum Guide, BAR 16:06, for a description of this exhibit.

Exhibit Extended

“Glories of the Past,” an exhibit of 200 items from the private collection of Shelby White and Leon Levy has been extended because of popular demand through March 31 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Well over 100,000 people had seen it by mid-January. See Museum Guide, BAR 16:06, for a full description.

Collegeville, PA