Page 173 - A Walk to Caesarea / Joseph Patrich

A Walk to Caesarea: A Historical-Archaeological Perspective 159

The Archeological Exhibition in Ralli 1 Museum

The Ralli Museum of Art in Caesarea, one of four museums with this name found
around the world (the others in Uruguay, Chile, and Spain), opened in 1993.
They were all founded by the late Harry Recanati. It was built in Spanish colonial
architectural style. Most of it is devoted to works of art – statues and paintings
– by European and American artists, the majority from South and Central
America. Among all these is also an archeological display which originated with an
exhibition of finds entitled “Herod’s Dream.” This exhibition was displayed in 1984
in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and then toured a number of
museums in the United States and Canada. Obviously, therefore, this is a highly
intriguing exhibition, rich in displays. It presents the history of Caesarea and its
harbor from Hellenistic Straton’s Tower through the Crusader period. Seen in it,
inter alia, is a reconstructed model of the harbor, drawings depicting the process of
its construction, as well as a fragment of naval cement from the harbor.

The topics and findings presented in photographs, showcases, and cabinets
are extremely varied and organized chronologically: the Caesarea aqueducts, the
underwater excavations, Herod’s building projects in Caesarea and Judaea at large
(the Second Temple that he built in Jerusalem, the winter palaces in Jericho,
Masada, Herodium and Samaria/Sebaste); a collection of terracotta oil lamps,
coins, pottery vessels, metal and bone objects from the different periods uncovered
in excavations on land and in the sea. Alongside the various findings, there is also a
video display, describing the archaeological field work on land and under water, and
methods of documenting the findings. Presented in the showcases related to the
Roman period are a model of a Roman merchant ship, the technique of building
Roman sea craft, copper nails, sail rings, a wooden wheel, and an iron anchor.
The varied pottery vessels attest to the complex international trade. A separate
showcase is devoted to fishing in Caesarea. Displayed are fishing rods, lead weights,
some of them decorated, and a jar for pickled fish. Another showcase concerns
daily life. Presented here are a small oil flask (aryballos), an alloy of lead, copper
and tin, which was found on the seabed, the bolt of a door, the head of a panther
and the rear part of its body, in bronze, a weight of a loom, a mold for casting a
ring, a bone cosmetic spoon, a bone comb and more. One showcase displays the
heads of deities (Dionysus and Pan, of marble; an oil lamp with the portrait of
the goddess Cybele); another presents a reflection of the Roman religion on coins,
bronze figurines and bone relief. Among the inscriptions is a copy of the Pontius
Pilatus inscription found in secondary use in a theater (Fig. 16, above, p. 15), and a
fragment of an inscription of the courses of priests that originated in the synagogue
(Fig. 45, above, p. 42), a Christian inscription, tombstone of a Jewish grave, and
an Arabic burial inscription in Kufic script. Samaritan lamps represent this group
in the city’s population. Other display cases are devoted to the Byzantine period
(daily objects; a selection of pottery and glass vessels; molds for making figurines
and pottery lamps, and a perfume or jewelry box that inform us about workshops
that operated in Caesarea in this period). There is also a part of a colorful floor