The most interesting thing to notice at the Shahwan museum is the smell coming from historical items which reveals thousands of years of history which belongs to the Roman Greek Pharaonic and Islamic Eras gathered in one place.
For the last 35 years Marwan Shahwan has developed a hobby of collecting artifacts from Gaza and historical Palestine until he managed to start a small museum with thousands of historical pieces.
The Shahwan Museum is home for nearly 10000 pieces of artifacts from various eras as well as traditional Palestinian artifacts and utensils from different periods of time.
The story of Marwan 50 began when he was 15 years old when he was surprised to see an old piece of copper at the market then he began collecting antiques and old objects.
Carpenter and artist
For dozens of years the Shahwan family in the city of Khan Younis has been working in the carpentry craft as their father inherited it from his father and began making and selling furniture in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Shahwan visited many houses in the south and north of the Gaza Strip during the installation of his furniture. He listened to the stories of the elderly about the theft of the Israeli occupation’s officers of the antiques of the Gaza Strip. Since then he would not leave these houses without asking people there to tell him about any antique they know of or possess.
“I used to ask them about antiques and I found rare pieces with some of them. I used to buy antiques from people and some people used to give me what they found for free in recognition of my interest” Shahwan told the PIC reporter.
Shahwan gets out of his seat and takes a tour in the place moving between the sections of the museum which has pieces from the Greek Byzantine Islamic Pharaonic the Mamluk and Ottoman Eras but most of what he collected in Gaza belongs to the Roman and Byzantine Eras.
His passion for antiques made him drive to all parts of Gaza. He drove to the area of Al-Qarara east of Khan Younis the Al-Balakhiya area to the north of the Gaza to Rafah and Gaza cities and even to the Shati refugee camp where the Mediterranean Sea threw some antiques out.
“I have many pieces of pottery from different eras a lamp of fire catapult balls large coins and statues and Palestinian heritage items such as coffee kettles and clothes.”
Various memories
Marwan is proud of all the artifacts and keeps a memory for each of them; but he is proud of a certain copper item belonging to the Mamluk Era which bears the name (The kettle of the Prophet) which is the size of kettles during the Prophet’s time peace be upon him.
“Farmers used to plough their lands and they used to find antiques in Rafah as well as ancient tombs and stones. In other areas there were scouts hunting for gold and silver and in the Shati camp I watched divers diving into the sea and taking out pieces of Greek and Roman antiquities.”
The Shahwan Museum was visited by ambassadors and researchers from Norway the Netherlands the United States of America and Egypt and they were amazed at the collection of such a huge amount of rare historical pieces to the extent that the museum became a destination for researchers and media outlets.
He added “As you see I rented this narrow tomb under the house of my relatives to put these monuments and historical pieces but I need an area of about 2000 square meters and my ambition is for the world to get to know our heritage and past civilization.”
He hopes that someone or some institution will sponsor his museum and establish a convenient place to display dozens of antiques that he spent a lot of money to buy from different regions which now are covered by dust.
