The San Diego Museum of Man opens Journey to the Copper Age: Archaeology in the Holy Land exhibit this Sunday, June 10, 2007. This much anticipated once in a lifetime exhibition, brings artifacts, many of which have never been seen outside of Israel, to San Diego. The exhibit features 6,000-year-old objects from the Israel Museum and stunning photography by Kenneth Garrett, one of the National Geographic Society’s most prominent photographers. The Museum of Man developed and brought together the partnerships making it possible for San Diego to be able to showcase this prestigious exhibition. The Museum of Man designed the Journey to the Copper Age exhibit to coincide with the neighboring Natural History Museum’s Dead Sea Scroll exhibit also opening in June. The goal is to showcase two things going on in Balboa Park around similar topics that would enrich the visitor’s experience and inform about human history.
Journey to the Copper Age opens on Sunday, June 10, 2007 and will be available for San Diegans to be astounded through January 2008. The San Diego Museum of Man will be transformed with 60 of Garrett’s full-color images of Israel,
The exhibit is based on a National Geographic expedition led by Dr. Thomas Levy, archaeologist with the University of California, San Diego, who assembled a group of international scientists from Jordan, Israel, Europe and the United States, to follow an ancient trade route across the deserts to the ore site in Jordan and the smelting site in Israel. Visitors to the exhibit will have the opportunity to view artifacts that capture the first documented human settlement and the beginnings of social complexity of social organization. Journey to the Copper Age captures the first dramatic increase in human population in the Holy Land (an area today known as Jordan and Israel), which occurred during the Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500 – 3600 B.C.E.), where widespread human settlement emerged in the region.
Journey to the Copper Age also represents an important new direction for the San Diego Museum of Man exhibitions as the museum’s leadership is collaborating with leading members of the academic community to make the latest scientific and scholarly research accessible to the public. With this exhibit, the museum joined forces with distinguished scholar Dr. Thomas Levy, a noted UC San Diego archaeologist who founded the concept of the exhibit; leadership from The Israel Museum, a renowned facility in Jerusalem dedicated to art and archaeology; and along with National Geographic Photographer Kenneth Garrett.
“Thanks to the vision of Dr. Thomas Levy and the support of the Israel Museum and National Geographic Society, we are thrilled to bring this exhibition to life in our museum,” said Mari Lyn Salvador, Ph.D., executive director of the Museum of Man.
Tickets may be purchased online at www.museumofman.org. Adult admission is $14.00. Child admission (ages 6-17) is $8.00. Military (with valid ID) and Senior (ages 65+) admission is $10.00. Student admission (with valid ID) is $10.00. Ticket admission includes Journey to the Copper Age: Archaeology in the Holy Land exhibition as well as general admission to all temporary and permanent exhibits at the San Diego Museum of Man. Due to the anticipated demand and popularity, ticket holders will be assigned a specific entry time upon arrival at the museum with 10:00 a.m. tickets holders having entry valid for exhibit entry between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Ticket holders with a 1:00 p.m. admission time will have valid entry for the exhibit between the hours of 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Located beneath the landmark California Tower in Balboa Park, the San Diego Museum of Man is an educational, non-profit corporation. The Museum is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For further information, please call (619) 239-2001 or visit the Museum of Man’s web site at www.museumofman.org
