Rockefeller Museum

The Rockefeller Museum displays a large collection of artifacts unearthed in excavations across British-ruled Mandatory Palestine, mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. It stands next to Herod's Gate in East Jerusalem, in a building by the British architect Austen Harrison that blends Western architecture with Eastern influences, using materials such as Turkish nut doors and Armenian ceramics. The building is a designated heritage site in Israel.

Funded by a donation from John D. Rockefeller Jr., the museum had its foundation stone laid in June 1930 and opened in January 1938 as the Palestine Archaeological Museum. An international body ran it at first, and Jordan nationalized it in 1966. It came under Israeli control during the Six-Day War in 1967 and was renamed. Today the Israel Museum manages it, and it houses the head office of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The museum held the Dead Sea Scrolls from their discovery in 1947 until 1967, when Israel moved them to the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem. Their ownership has been contested ever since.