Israel Antiquities Authority

History

The Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (IDAM) of the Ministry of Education was founded on July 26, 1948, after the establishment of the State of Israel. It took over the functions of the Department of Antiquities of the British Mandate in Israel and Palestine. Originally, its activities were based on the British Mandate Department of Antiquities ordinances.

IDAM was the statutory authority responsible for Israel's antiquities and for the administration of small museums. Its functions included curation of the state collection of antiquities, storing of the state collection, maintaining a list of registered antiquities sites, inspecting antiquities sites and registering newly discovered sites, conducting salvage and rescue operations of endangered antiquities sites, maintaining an archaeological library (the state library), maintaining an archive.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) was created from the IDAM by the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in a 1990 statute. Amir Drori became its first director. The IAA fulfilled the statutory obligations of the IDAM and in its early days was greatly expanded from the core number of workers in IDAM to a much larger complement, and to include the functions of the Archaeological Survey of Israel project, ending the activity of the Association for the Archaeological Survey of Israel (1964-1988). The period of expansion lasted for a number of years, but was followed by a period in which diminished fiscal resources and a reduction in funding led to large cutbacks in the size of its work force and its activities.

Publications

It published the results of excavations in three journals:

• Booklet of the Department of Antiquities (Hebrew), now defunct
• IAA Reports monograph series, started in the late 1990s (English)
• 'Atiqot / עתיקות (Hebrew and English), still published
• Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (HA-ESI; Hebrew and English), still published, online.
• Qadmoniot: A Journal for the Antiquities of Eretz-Israel and Bible (Hebrew), published by Israel Exploration Society together with the IAA.
• Archaeological Survey of Israel. A GIS database of tiled maps covering 10 km2 of the State of Israel. Descriptive texts and media of surveyed sites. A continuous project, published online only (previously in print).

The National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel

Main article: Schottenstein campus

The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel is the future building of the IAA, aiming to concentrate all centralized administrative offices into one structure. The campus is planned on 20,000 square meters between the Israel Museum and the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem by Architect Moshe Safdie.

Directors

• Shmuel Yeivin, 1948–1961
• Avraham Biran, 1961–1974
• Avraham Eitan, 1974–1988
• Amir Drori, 1988–2000
• Yehoshua (Shuka) Dorfman, 2000–July 31, 2014
• Yisrael Hasson, 2014–2020
• Eli Escusido he 2021-

Other staff

• Levi Rahmani, archeologist and Chief Curator during the 1980s

Restoration work

The IAA's six-member restoration team restores potsherds, textiles, metal objects and other objects related to the material culture of the country discovered in archaeological excavations. Unlike their peers around the world, the team in Israel is barred by Israeli law from working with human remains.

References

References

1. [http://www.antiquities.org.il/EShopProducts_eng.aspx?Category_id=19 ''Qadmoniot''] on homepage of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Accessed 17 July 2021
2. [http://survey.antiquities.org.il/index_Eng.html#/ Hebrew and English database, occasionally English translations]
3. "The Mandel National Library and National Archives for the Archaeology of Israel to be part of the new Israel Antiquities Authority Campus in Jerusalem".
4. Hasson, Nir. (August 26, 2010). "A Behind-the-scenes Look at the Restoration of Israel's Antiquities". [[Haaretz]].