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Incense shovel from Cave of the Letters_Bridgeman, BAL_371309

© ISRAEL MUSEUM, JERUSALEM / ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

UNCEASING INCENSE. Most scholars assume that Jews stopped using aromatics in worship with the destruction of the Temple and the halting of animal sacrifice. However, clues in the archaeological record suggest otherwise. This ritual shovel (mahtah) was found in the Cave of the Letters, in the Judean Desert, where it had been left by Jewish refugees following the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–136 CE). Its presence reveals that Jews continued to use incense as part of their devotional lives beyond the biblical era.