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JAR HANDLE: KYLE KEIMER

CANAANITE LEGACY. Khirbet al-Ra‘i’s cultural richness was evident in the cult spaces and objects discovered especially near the site’s summit in Area D. A 4-inch-tall bronze “smiting god” figurine, immediately recognizable as a Canaanite form, was discovered in a cult building that dates from the 13th to 12th centuries BCE, when the site was likely inhabited by Canaanite locals. About a century later, when the Philistines were the town’s primary occupants, the Canaanite influence appears nevertheless to have persisted. The 3.5-inch-wide jar handle with bull’s head (above), which draws on traditionally Canaanite bull imagery, was discovered with an assortment of distinctly Philistine cult objects.