Young Boy Finds Ancient Figurine

May 17, 2016

A 3,400-year-old statue was recently discovered by a seven-year-old boy while he was walking with some friends through an archaeological site in the Jordan Valley. While Ori Greenhut and his friends were climbing up the Tel Rehov archaeological mound, Ori spotted a stone that had shifted and suddenly saw an image of a human-like figure covered with soil. He rubbed away the soil that was adhering to the object and revealed a clay figurine.

Moriya Greenhut, Ori’s mother, says. “Ori returned home with the impressive figurine and the excitement was great. We explained to him this is an ancient artifact and that archaeological finds belong to the State.”

The Greenhut family turned the find over to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). After being examined by Professor Amihai Mazar, the director of excavations at Tel Rehov, Mazar said that the figurine was typical of the Canaanite culture of the 15th–13th centuries BC. Some researchers think the figure depicted here is that of a real flesh-and-blood woman, and others view her as the fertility goddess Astarte, known from Canaanite sources and from the Bible.

It is highly likely that the term trafim, mentioned in the Bible (when Rachel stole her father’s household gods, Genesis 31), refers to figurines of this kind. Evidently the figurine belonged to one of the residents of the city of Rehov, which was then ruled by the central government of the Egyptian pharaohs.” The clay figurine portrays a naked standing woman made by pressing soft clay into a mold.

Source: Excerpts of article by Edgar Asher, Ashernet

Photo Credit: IAA and Ashernet