At the seat of a governor, Antioch was the administrative center of Syria and  the leading city in the Roman East. Antioch was a vital metropolis set on the crossroads between the Euphrates to the east and the ports of the Mediterranean to the west, and between Ephesos to the north and Jerusalem to the south. It was a city where the cultural and economic forces of the east (as far as Persia) and the West (as far as Rome) met.

The search for Antioch began in 1932 under the direction of The Committee for the Excavation of Antioch and Its Vicinity, made up of representatives from the Muse’e Nationaux de France (Louvre), the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, Princeton University and the Fogg Art Museumat Harvard University and its affiliate Dumbarton Oaks.

Selected finds, including monumental floor mosaics, houses, furnishings, sculpture and coins were dispersed to the sponsoring museums by agreement with the Syrian Department of Antiquities and subsequently with the Hatay government.

While these finds were initially sent only to the major sponsors, in time, space restrictions prompted the sale or exchange of many to locations as distant as Honolulu and Seattle. This exhibition reunites many of the Antioch finds for the first time since their discovery.

The objects in the exhibition are divided into five thematic sections: “City and the People”; “Water”; “Entertainment”; “The Roman House”; and “Religion”. Short essays introduce concepts and provide a framework for the objects selected for each of the five sections.

The exhibition seeks to bring to life a city that in the diversity of its people, the rich textures of its material culture, and the complexity of its intellectual and spiritual life, serves as a mirror for the cities of today.

The Bethlehem embroidery, known as couching, was developed in Bethlehem and the surrounding villages of Beit Sahur and Beit Jala. It is unique to these villages and different from the predominant cross-stitch embroidery used in the other regions of Palestine.

The chest, sleeves, cuffs and side panels of the dress are embroidered in couching stitch (tahriri) using silver, gold and silk cords. The embroidery on the sleeves and side panels are done on panels of green, red and yellow taffeta broadcloth. The chest panel on this dress is densely couched with patterns mainly in gold cord that it completely obscures the background material.                                                                 ‘ Malak Khdari’ dress of 1910. 

Eventually, the Bethlehem couching embroidery became in demand to add to cross-stitched dresses of other regions of Palestine, namely, Ramallah, Hebron and the Jaffa and Lydda  regions.Women of other villages in the Jaffa and Lydda regions later produced imitation of the Bethlehem embroidery known as rasheq.                                    Late nineteenth century rare Bethlehem scarf.  

Mrs. Carr’s generous donation also included a man’s gold-embroidered English wool robe or Abaya, long silk shirt, 3 skull caps, 3 red hattas, 2 embroidered head scarves, woolen head scarf, pair of sandals, leather bandolier, 3 khanjars, and long sheepskin-lined cloak.

Back in 1998, Mrs. Carr donated three Palestinian embroidered costumes that she acquired when she and Mr. Carr used to live in Jordan in the early sixties.

Mr. and Mrs. Carr lived in Saudi Arabia in the sixties while on a tour in the Middle East, that included Jordan. Her late husband who had passed away recently purchased these men’s attire.

The dresses are antique, heavily embroidered items that come from the Jaffa and Hebron regions. The scarves are old colorful items embroidered with silk thread on cotton fabric representing the Hebron and Jaffa areas, and the embroidered pillows come from the Hebron area as well.

The jewelry is bracelets and necklaces, and the brass items included lamps and coffeepots and other items. Mrs. Gillard donated part of the items to the Foundation.

Mrs. Gillard had lived in Arab East Jerusalem with her spouse the late Mr. Gillard during the early 1960s. Mr. Gillard worked for AMIDEAST, an American cultural and educational organization that promotes Middle Eastern educational and cultural programs.

During their tour, the Gillards were also stationed in Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.