Rockefeller Archeological Museum

Rockefeller Museum

Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem
Established	13 January 1938 (opening date)
Location	27 Sultan Suleiman Street, East Jerusalem
Type	Archaeology museum
Curator	Fawzi Ibrahim
Website	imj.org.il/ram

The Rockefeller Archeological Museum,^[1] formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum ("PAM"; 1938–1967),^[2][3] is an archaeology museum located in East Jerusalem, next to Herod's Gate,^[4] that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the excavations conducted in the British-ruled Mandatory Palestine, mainly in the 1920s and 1930s.^[5]

The museum was established through a donation by John D. Rockefeller Jr. for the creation of a museum and research center in Cairo. Designed by British architect Austen Harrison, it blends Western architectural achievements with Eastern influences, using materials such as Turkish nut doors and Armenian ceramics. The foundation stone was laid in June 1930, and the museum opened in January 1938.^[6] Initially managed by an international body, it was nationalized by the Jordanians in 1966.^[6] During the Six-Day War in 1967, battles occurred in the area, and the museum came under Israeli control. Renamed the "Rockefeller Museum," it is now managed by the Israel Museum and houses the head office of the Israel Antiquities Authority.^[7]

The Museum's most prized collection, the Dead Sea Scrolls, were housed in the Museum from their discovery, in 1947, until 1967, when, following the Israeli capture of East Jerusalem, Israel relocated the scrolls to the Israel Museum, in West Jerusalem, with the ownership of these scrolls having been heavily contested ever since. A small part of the scrolls, including the Copper Scroll, had been taken to Amman, and is now part of the collection of The Jordan Museum.^[8]