Bowers to Display House of David Inscription

The House of David Inscription, a rare relic of the Holy Land, will leave Israel to be displayed later this year at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, in an exhibition that museum and Israeli cultural officials say is a first for a U.S. institution.

The exhibit, “The Holy Land: David Roberts, Dead Sea Scrolls, House of David Inscription,” will open Oct. 6.

The House of David Inscription, a sacred text carved in basalt stone that stands 30 centimeters (nearly 12 inches) high and 22 centimeters (almost 9 inches) wide, is the earliest mention of the House of David--and possibly of King David--outside of biblical texts. The inscription was discovered in 1993 in northern Israel and will be lent by the Israel Museum. )

“The House of David Inscription is the single most important artifact in the state of Israel and is a national treasure,” said Ran Boytner, a UCLA archeologist who, with USC archeologist Lynn Swartz Dodd, is co-curator of the traveling exhibition. “Before the inscription was found, there was the question, ‘Were David and Solomon mythical figures or real people?’ This may very well mean the House of David was not a biblical myth but a historical fact.”

The inscription will accompany other objects from the Israel Museum, including the heel bone of a person believed to have been crucified, which is one of “the most important ones in our collection,” said Silvia Rozenberg, chief curator of archeology at the museum.

Two parchments of the Dead Sea Scrolls that date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century also will be lent from the Israel Antiquities Authority for the show. The first is “The Psalms Scroll from Qumran,” which contains 41 canonized psalms--seven not found in the Bible; and the second is “War of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness,” which describes an apocalyptic war according to the Dead Sea sect.

The exhibition also will include 123 lithographs of the Holy Land, from the Duke University Museum of Art, by Scottish artist David Roberts (1796-1864).