IDAM was the statutory authority responsible for Israel's antiquities and for the administration of small museums.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) was created from the IDAM by the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in a 1990 statute.

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 project, ending the activity of the Association for the Archaeological Survey of Israel (1964-1988).

It published the results of excavations in three journals: The Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel is the future building of the IAA, aiming to concentrate all centralized administrative offices into one structure.

Unlike their peers around the world, the team in Israel is barred by Israeli law from working with human remains.