Paul Calvert spoke with the Israel Museum Director

James Schneider at the Herod Exhibit

The Israel Museum is now presenting the first ever exhibition on King Herod. With 30 tons of archaeological material and 250 artefacts and artefactual reconstructions, it reveals the Roman aesthetic presence on the building of the region, but also the period of the flourishing of Second Temple Jerusalem.

The exhibition on Herod The Great, 'The King's Final Journey' began at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem on February 13th and runs through to October 5th. Paul Calvert spoke with the Museum Director, James Schneider.

Paul: You have just opened a brand new exhibit about King Herod, tell us more about it.

James: First, for the Israel Museum this is perhaps the most ambitious archaeology exhibition that we have ever undertaken. Secondly and interestingly, this is the first time that Herod has been treated as the central subject in a major museum exhibition anywhere in the world.

Paul: What can people see when they come here?

Entrance to the Exhibit

James: This narrative is quite an interesting one. The occasion that has enabled us to produce the exhibition was the discovery in 2007 of Herod's burial place in Herodium.

The first idea was to do an exhibition that would document the narrative of Herod's death at his palace in Jericho and then the procession that brought him to his burial site in Herodium. We felt that that story needed to be expanded, because the story that has never really been told is the story of how Herod was, as regional imperial leader and builder, representing the Roman Empire in this region and putting the aesthetic touch of Rome across the region in Jerusalem, Caesarea, Masada and Jericho. At the same time that Herod managed to have that strong diplomatic tie to the home base, he enabled the flourishing of a local culture, which was the Second Temple period Judaism and in a way this was a kind of golden age for Jewish culture during the Second Temple time. That delicate balance is really a remarkable thing to see in history and Herod accomplished that.

Paul: How important is Herod to Jerusalem itself?

James: If you know the Archaeology Wing galleries of the Israeli Museum, they cover the kind of archaeological history of the region from pre-history more than a million years ago, to Islamic culture in the Ottoman time. A watershed moment in that history is the moment of Second Temple Jerusalem, when side by side you have Herod's Roman Jerusalem and you have the Jewish Second Temple Jerusalem; so this is a really important part of the long history of where we are and Herod is central to that story.

Paul: You have a reconstruction of the burial chamber of Herod. How important was that find?

Possibly Herod's Tomb

James: It was remarkably important because a very distinguished archaeologist in Israel named Ehud Netzer spent over four decades excavating Herodium, which was an important summer palace for Herod. According to Josephus it was also the site of his burial mound and yet it had never been found; so the discovery in 2007 of his burial site was a moment of magic.

Paul: How many finds do you have in the exhibit?

James: It's not really the way to characterize the quality of an exhibition, but I think we have about 30 tons of archaeological material and altogether 250 artefacts and artefactual reconstructions.

Paul: Where have all these finds come from?