The Eretz Israel Museum was established in 1953 in Ramat Aviv. The museum displayes comprehensive archeological, anthropological and historical findings of the region The "Museum Park" comprising many exhibition pavilions within a huge campus. Every pavilion is dedicated to a different cultural subject: glassware, ceramics, coins, copper and more, as well as a planetarium. The 'Man and His Work' section features live demonstrations of ancient methods of weaving, jewelry and pottery making, grain grinding and bread baking. Tel Quasile, an excavation in which 12 distinct layers of civilization have been uncovered, is part of the Museum, as well the Museum of the History of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Independence Hall , where the State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, both of which are in central Tel Aviv.

Nechushtan Pavilion

Reconstructed Mine

Inside the pavilion, the visitor finds himself in a reconstructed mine from the Chalcolithic period and the Late Bronze Age, showing marks of mining tools such as the stone hammers, flint blades and copper chisels displayed in their respective showcases.

Smelting furnaces

Four smelting furnaces are on display:

Bowl furnace from the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium B.C.) Domed furnace of the Late Bronze Age (14th-13th centuries B.C.) An authentic Late Bronze Age furnace (12th century B.C.) Shaft furnace of the Iron Age (10th century B.C.).

The Egyptian-Midianite Mining Temple

In the 14th century B.C. the Egyptian pharaohs dispatched mining expeditions to Timna . Alongside with expert metalsmiths from the Land of Midian, they extracted copper at Timna until the early 12th century B.C. This pavilion houses a Midianite temple model.

Of special interest is the copper snake with gilded head, found in the naos of the Midianite shrine, perhaps pointing to the biblical Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4) (a brazen thing).

The Glass Pavilion

This pavilion exhibits one of the world's most beautiful collections of ancient glass vessels. The exhibition is divided into three sections, representing three chapters in the hidtory of glass vessel production:

Pre-Blown Glass (Late Bronze Age to Hellenistic period - from the 15th to the 1st centuries B.C.)

The Pavilion display vessels made by the core-forming technique - the most ancient method of manufacturing glass utensils.

Blown glass of the Roman and Byzantine periods (1st- 7th centuries)

Glass-blowing is considered to be one of the most important technological discoveries, which facilitated the production process and made glass vessels cheap and popular.

In the center of this section, two rare and important vessels are displayed: A delicate drinking horn with two openings, known by its Greek name "rhyton", and "Ennion`s Blue Jug" bearing the signature of its maker, is one of the most famous and beautiful creations of that artist, who lived in the first half of the 1st century.

Blown glass of the Islamic period (7th-15th centuries)

This section is devoted to glass vessels made in Eastern Mediterranean countries after the Arab conquest in the 7th century.

The Glass Furnace from Khirbet Samariyah

Remnants of a glass furnace from the 13th century, discovered alongside the Crusader fortress at Sommelaria, north of Acre.

Postal and Philatelic Museum

The Pavilion recounts the history of postal service in the Land of Israel.

The first section deals with the history of postal sevice in the Land of Israel from the mid-nineteenth century until the founding of the State of Israel. It includes envelopes and letters, photographs and posters, mailboxes and telephones, as well as a postal veihicle from 1949.

The philatelic display wing displays valuable and rare stamps.

External Link

The Eretz Israel Museum