Generally an anthropology museum of this kind would not be that interesting, but I was mesmerized, the layout was so logical, so easy to follow, I spent 3 hours wandering through that expansive grounds. Here goes:
The Israeli archaeologists are considered some of the best in the world and everytime anything of ancient origin is found it is cataloged, here is a vase that has been painstakingly put together, its part of an exhibit with hundreds of such ceramic pieces, what kind of people spend their whole lives putting together the pieces of vases that were broken 3ooo years ago, jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts, Israel calls you!
First, a really cute café, as always filled with young IDF soldiers who get to do all this museum stuff for free, I had toast, three kinds of cheese, 3 kinds of jelly and a view of the city. Numimatic Pavillion: there was one of every ancient coin ever minted that had been found in Israel, displayed by time period each with a full description of the who/what/why of each stupid coin. There was a whole mini-room just for the coins of the period of Persian King Cyrus who freed the Jews in 500 BCE and about 30 different coins of the period. Man and His Work Center: there was an old reconstructed market setting with a completely equipped scene (circa BCE) of a shop for metal work, weaving, glass blowing, leather work, and about 10 other crafts. Copper Pavillion, fascinating history of the cooper production from Southern Israel, especially the techniques of mining cooper before modern devices. Postal Museum: In May, 1948 the British left Israel and they took with them the postal service; within 2 days, new Israeli stamps were issued and a fully functioning postal system was operational. Rothschild Center: an incredibly detailed history of the Rothschild’s involvement with Israel which started out as a wine growing venture and then just kept going for several generations. It isn’t often that one family, actually one person, can provide the money to fund the creation of an entire country. The genius of this contribution is not that the money was given to develop and then exploit the country as might have been the case with King Leopold in the Congo, this is money given by Baron Rothchild because he believe there should be a Jewish homeland, although it should be said he did not initially believe this and came to the conclusion later in his life.
Here is an example from the Postal Museum of the kinds of letters sent to whomever will read them.
Finally, there was a huge archaeological dig called Tel Qasile which is supposed to be one of the first such projects in Israel and is dated at around 12th century BCE (in Israel that is known as Before the Common Era, they don’t say Before Christ, dah)
I'm standing of a pile of rubble from 3500 years ago, photographing the Tel Aviv modern landscape, really far out imagery when you think of it.
It’s hard to know what goes on in the mind of an archeologist. To the casual tourist you look down on a pile of rubble which is undistinguished from any other pile of rubble that you would see along the side of the road; then you see a plaque which says “3500 years ago this was a thriving metropolis which had a city square, homes, sophisticated water system, temple and many more things.” Damn, it sure looks like rubble to me. But the point of this analysis is that someone has decided that it is more important to fence off about one square mile of absolutely prime real estate property for a pile of 3500 year old rubble rather than turn it into high income producing property. You have to admire that, it’s an integral part of the Israeli experience.
There are many, many people who honestly give a shit about this stuff. What is so interesting and tragic from a political perspective is that the Israelis would level a Palestinian town in a heartbeat, wiping out any trace of Palestinian presence or history and yet if they found a coin from the Old Temple, they would go nuts and preserve that site forever. It’s a subtle, actually not so subtle form, of racism which goes to the heart of Israeli nation building.
Here is a really cool telecom tower, that top is a metal palm tree branch and from a distance this almost looks like a palm tree.
IN THE NEWS: I’ve started reading the headlines in the English version of the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz and will add a brief commentary in my blog when there is something of interest.
Gilad Shalit is a household name in Israel, he is the IDF soldier who was kidnapped in Gaza and seems to be driving so much of the Gaza policy. (There’s a similar situation on the Lebanese border but in that case the two soldiers, Goldwasser and Regev, are thought to be dead and yet there is intense demand for the return of their bodies.) To me this is more like William 'Old Shoe" Schumann from Wag the Dog. Olmert, the Israeli prime minister met with Mubarak the Egyptian prime minister today in the Sinai and what did they discuss, Egypt’s efforts to get free Shalit. That’s it! The current math is 450 Hamas prisoners for one Israeli soldier, but the talks broke down because 30 of the Hamasians are really heavy duty killers. Generally when I have an argument with an Israeli over policy, it always comes down to, “but you didn’t have someone who died in an Israeli war.” Part of the engine that drives policy here is the fact that in a small country everyone knows someone who has died in a war, unlike in Berkeley, where nobody knows anyone who is even in the Army, let along killed. In some ways this makes a mother like Cindy Sheehan so much more heroic, because she took the experience of the loss and chose to ask for the end of the war. I’m sure there are Sheehan mothers in Israel and if I see such an article I’ll mention it, but until then this image of one soldier justifying so much time and effort in favor of war is disturbing to me.
The Israeli government will give almost $1 million to any Israeli (there are 38) athlete who gets a gold medal at the Olympics. Only one Israeli has ever gotten a gold medal at the Olympics and that was in Sailing in 2004.
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