Treasures of Holy Land at FAMSF
Dead Sea Scroll Fragments & Artifacts at Legion of Honor: A Preview
Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Israeli antiquities are in a special exhibition at the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
The Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is presenting Highlights from the Israel Antiquities Authority: The Dead Sea Scrolls and 5000 Years of Treasures (February 9-August 10, 2008). This small-scale exhibition displays some 50 Dead Sea Scroll fragments and other artifacts on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority. The objects date from the Chalcolithic Age (4000 B.C.) to the Fatimid Period (11th Century A.D.). Most have never before left Israel.
The Exhibition
Among the precious works on view are:
- Philistine cultic stands (9th Century B.C.);
- pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls from the Book of Psalms (1st Century A.D.);
- funerary ossuaries (stone receptacles for bones of the deceased);
- Roman glassware;
- a mosaic from a Byzantine monastery in Jerusalem;
- a recently excavated and restored glass table with gold foil (late 6th-early 7th Century A.D.) from a Byzantine villa; and
- gold coins and jewelry from the Tiberias Hoard (1000-1050 A.D.).
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Discovery and Contents
One of the most important discoveries of the 20th Century was that of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Radiocarbon dating, paleographic and textual analyses date them to 250 B.C.-68 A.D. They were first uncovered by young Bedouin herdsmen looking for a stray goat and then excavated by archaeologists between 1947 and 1956. They were found in 11 caves along the Dead Sea's northwestern shores near Khirbet Qumran, Israel. The scrolls' fragments, many stored in cylindrical ceramic vessels, contain more than 800 documents, including some 230 Biblical texts, Apocryphal writings excluded from the Hebrew canon, hymns, prayers and other works when assembled.
Presumably the scrolls were copied by members of a renegade sect of Judaism that took up communal residence at Qumran. They regarded themselves as the "true Israel" and reviled Jerusalem's inhabitants and priesthood. Recorded in the scrolls' sectarian portions are Biblical commentaries, examples of religious law, devotional texts and apocalyptic literature. Invaded by the Romans in ca. 68 A.D., the Qumran community concealed its writings in caves bordering the Dead Sea before its form of Judaism was extinguished.
The exhibition's precious scroll fragments are sensitive to both light and temperature. They will therefore be rotated and shown in a climate-controlled environment.
Future Collaborations
Highlights from the Israel Antiquities Authority... is the product of a first-ever agreement between the IAA and another institution. This arrangement permits the two organizations to collaborate on future exhibitions and projects.
Sources:
- Cradle of Christianity (exh. cat.). Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 2000.
- Treasures of the Holy Land: Ancient Art from the Israel Museum. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986.
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