Biblical ‘amulet of fertility’ found by 11-year-old Negev

Biblical ‘amulet of fertility’ found by 11-year-old Negev

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A child on a family walk in the Negev found a statuette dating back to the biblical period, the Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday.

The artifact depicts a stylized woman with bare breasts wearing a scarf with her hands crossed under her chest. It is about 2,500 years old and is from the late First Temple period or the beginning of the Persian period, also known as the “Return to Zion”, the IAA said in a press release. It probably served as an amulet for fertility and protection for children, he said.

2,500-year-old ceramic figurine found in northern Negev (Yevgeny Ostrovsky / Israel Antiquities Authority)2,500-year-old ceramic figurine found in northern Negev (Yevgeny Ostrovsky / Israel Antiquities Authority)

“Ceramic figurines of women with bare breasts are known from various periods in Israel, including the era of the First Temple,” according to Oren Shmueli and Debbie Ben Ami, curators of the IAA of the Iron Age and Persian periods. “They were common at home and in everyday life, like the hamsa [hand design] today, and apparently served as amulets to ensure protection, good luck and prosperity.

“We must keep in mind that in ancient times, medical knowledge was rudimentary. Infant mortality was very high and about a third of those born did not survive. There was little understanding of hygiene and fertility treatment was naturally non-existent. In the absence of advanced medicine, amulets provided hope and an important way to ask for help. “

The gods of fertility were very common in ancient cultures. The Bible offers many testimonies of the influence that neighboring populations had on the Israelites.

The ceramic figurine, about seven centimeters high and six centimeters. wide, it was seen by Zvi Ben-David, 11, of Beersheba, during a family trip to Nahal Habesor, a trail in the south that follows the bed of the river Besor.

The boy’s mother, a professional tour guide, understood the importance of the finding and alerted the IAA.

Only another similar statuette, also found in the north of the Negev, is kept in the collection of the National Treasury.

“The exemplary citizenship of young Zvi Ben-David will allow us to improve our understanding of the practices of worship in biblical times and of man’s inherent need for material human personifications,” Shmueli and Ben-Ami were quoted as saying.

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