Itai Halperin, 8, of Pardesiya, was walking around the Tel Beit Shemesh archaeological site with his family when he picked up a small ceramic object which, upon closer examination, turned out to be a roughly 3,000-year-old head of a figurine, the Israel Antiquties Authority announces.
Itai Halperin, 8, and the head of an Iron Age statuette he found while walking near Tel Beit Shemesh. (Arik Halperin, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority)
The family immediately reported the find to the IAA, whose Iron Age specialist, Alon De Groot, identified the find as the head of a fertility goddess statuette.
“Figurines such as these, in the shape of naked women representing fertility, were common in the homes of the residents of the Judean Kingdom in the 8th century BCE and until the destruction of the kingdom by the Babylonians in the days of Zedekia (in 586 BCE),” De Groot says in a statement.
Statuettes such as these help identify sites as Judean, he notes.
The head of an Iron Age statuette found by an 8-year-old while walking near Tel Beit Shemesh. (Alexander Glick, courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority)
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