Paris show displays Gaza’s ancient treasures

France, Apr. 6: Archaeological treasures across Gaza have been damaged and destroyed in the war that is once more raging in the Palestinian territory. Some that escaped the devastation went on show at the Arab World Institute on Thursday, April 3, shedding light on the extraordinary heritage of a land that has been for centuries a crossroads of civilisations. 

Lined up in a vast exhibition hall on the banks of the River Seine, a dozen terracotta amphoras tell a little-known history of the Gaza Strip, one of prosperous trade, refined craftsmanship and intercultural exchange. 

The ancient jars, some ominously shaped like artillery shells, were once used to carry wine from Gaza to far-flung destinations across the Mediterranean world and as far as England. 

Spanning nine centuries under Persian, Greek and Roman rule, they bear witness to Gaza’s historic role as a hub that connected trade routes from Egypt to the Levant and beyond. 

“One struggles to imagine the extraordinary wealth of exchanges that took place in Gaza over thousands of years, knowing that the territory is now completely sealed off,” says Béatrice Blandin, curator of archaeology at the Museum of Art and History (MAH) in Geneva. 

For the past 17 years, Blandin and her colleagues in Geneva have helped preserve the amphoras – and hundreds of other precious artefacts – in a secure warehouse, far from the wars that have ravaged the Palestinian territory. 

A selection of 87 of those works goes on display at the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute, or IMA) in Paris on Thursday, giving viewers a rare chance to sample Gaza’s rich and diverse heritage, much of which has been bombed into rubble. 

5,000-year history 

A museum, library and learning centre dedicated to the Arab world, the IMA was finalising plans for an exhibition on ancient Byblos last year when war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah, precluding the transfer of vulnerable works from Lebanon. 

The Paris institute chose instead to revive another project tied to the decades-long Mideast conflict, exhibiting some of the Gazan artefacts that were stored in Geneva. 

“Rescued treasures from Gaza” covers 5,000 years of Gazan history up until the 19th century. Works on display include a sprawling mosaic floor that once adorned a Byzantine church, finely crafted Roman oil lamps featuring erotic motifs, and an exquisite marble statuette of the Greek goddess Aphrodite that was found at sea by a local fisherman. 

Curator Elodie Bouffard said the works bear witness to the “extraordinary archaeological density” of a territory that has been inhabited without interruption since the Bronze Age, in which Assyrian, Greek and Roman heritage exists side-by-side with artefacts from the Byzantine, Mamluk and Ottoman eras. 

Bouffard spoke of a form of “cultural resistance” made all the more urgent by the war still raging in Gaza. She referenced past exhibitions organised by the IMA, stressing its endeavour to “restore the history and dignity of the Palestinian people”. 

When the latest war broke out in October 2023, triggered by Hamas’s murderous rampage in southern Israel, the IMA was hosting a show on contemporary creation in the Palestinian territories.  

Entitled “What Palestine Brings to the World”, it featured works by artists from the diaspora and others based in the West Bank or Gaza – some of whom had been killed by Israel's ferocious riposte even before the show was over.  

One notable work envisioned the creation of a “virtual museum” designed to safeguard the heritage of a stateless, blockaded and war-ravaged land. That theme finds a continuum in the IMA’s latest exhibition, in which exiled artists give way to exiled artefacts. (AFP)