Israel has now joined the chorus of nations seeking to reclaim the remains of its cultural heritage from the collections of foreign museums.
In a July meeting with Namik Tan, Turkey’s ambassador to Israel, Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski officially requested that Turkey return the famous Siloam inscription to its native city, calling the potential return a “gesture of goodwill.”
The Siloam inscription dates to shortly before 700 B.C.E. and commemorates the completion of a rock-cut water channel under Jerusalem known as Hezekiah’s Tunnel. The tunnel leads from the Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley to the Pool of Siloam on the other side of the city.
According to the Bible, King Hezekiah ordered the construction of the tunnel to protect the city, and its vulnerable water source, in the event of an Assyrian siege, which ultimately came in 701 B.C.E. Both the Bible and Assyrian records admit that the siege of Jerusalem was unsuccessful. Hezekiah’s foresight may have saved Jerusalem by providing fresh water for the city’s inhabitants during the siege.
The text, written in ancient Hebrew script, records the last dramatic moments as the two teams digging the tunnel from opposite ends worked toward the sounds of each other’s voices until they finally broke through in the middle, pick axe to pick axe, and the water began to flow.
The inscription was carved into the rock on the side of Hezekiah’s Tunnel and went unnoticed in modern times until 1880, when it was discovered by a youth wading through the tunnel. The block of stone bearing the text was later cut from the wall by looters but was recovered and turned over to the Ottoman rulers who controlled the Holy Land at that time. The tablet was placed in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, where it can be seen to this day.
Israel is not the first country to make a request for the return of its antiquities. Greece has asked for the return of the so-called Elgin Marbles (portions of the Parthenon frieze) from the British Museum. Egypt has sought the return or loan of many of its most-prized artifacts, including the Rosetta Stone and the bust of Nefertiti from the Louvre and Berlin’s Altes Museum. Italian officials have also negotiated with several prominent museums, including the Getty (Los Angeles), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) and the Metropolitan Museum (New York), for the return of works of art that were looted and illegally exported from Italian soil.
An official at the Turkish embassy said the inscription will be returned to Jerusalem as a loan for a few months, but it could remain on a long-term basis if Israel reciprocates—most likely with the loan of Ottoman artifacts to Turkey.
—D.D.R.
Israel has now joined the chorus of nations seeking to reclaim the remains of its cultural heritage from the
collections of foreign museums.
In a July meeting with Namik Tan, Turkey’s ambassador to Israel, Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski officially
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.
