GROUND ZERO

On 16 December 1947, senior Hebrew archaeologists met to discuss the place of archaeology in the future Hebrew state. They included professors at the Hebrew University Leo Ari Mayer and Eliezer Lipa Sukenik; the Committee of the Israel Exploration Society (IES) Itzhak Ben-Zvi (later President of Israel), Moshe Schwabe, Itzhak Ernst Nebenzahl (State Comptroller of Israel, 1961–81), Binyamin Mazar, Haim Zeev Hirschberg, Avraham Bergman and Shemuel Yeivin (Yeivin was also chief translator of the Mandatory government: GL44869/1, letters dated 4.7.48, 22.9.48); and members of the Mandatory Department of Antiquities Immanuel Ben-Dor, Michael Avi-Yonah, Pinhas Penuel Kahane and Ruth Kallner (later Amiran). Two other dignitaries, Moshe Stekelis and Bruno Kirschner, could not attend the meeting. In this hectic period (Pilowsky 1988), all the participants still believed that the Rockefeller Museum must remain united, and most of them thought that the Hebrew state should erect its own department of antiquities that would protect ancient places (which were an “immeasurable national asset”), carry out and license excavations, supervise museums, make a general survey, develop large-scale research and “enter the idea of saving ancient assets and their study into the hearts of the people” (GL44868/7, report by Mayer 8.1.48). They recommended a department with two sections: a central office headed by a director and deputy director and a network of supervisors.