Israel Antiquities Authority

The Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (IDAM) of the Ministry of Education was founded on July 26, 1948, during the establishment of the State of Israel. It continued the function of the Department of Antiquities of the British Mandate Government, after partition of Palestine. Its activities were originally based on the British Mandate Department of Antiquities ordinances. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) was created from the IDAM by the Knesset (parliament) at the instigation of its last director, Amir Drori, in a 1999 statute. Amir Drori then became the first director of the IAA. The IAA fulfilled the statutory obligations of the IDAM and in its early days was greatly expanded from the core number of workers in IDAM to a much larger complement, and to include the functions of the Archaeological Survey of Israel. The period of expansion lasted for a number of years, but was followed by a period in which diminished fiscal resources saw large cutbacks in the size of its work force and its activities. It remains a large, active, vital institution.