Prize Find: A Royal Likeness?

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Just a few tears ago, excavators working at Tel Abel Beth Maacah, near the Israel–Lebanon border, uncovered the beautifully preserved head of a statuette. Made of faience, the head is approximately 2 inches tall; it likely was originally part of a full human figure that stood up to 10 inches. The head depicts a bearded man with an elaborate hairstyle and a headband. His hair, beard, and eyes are painted black, and the headband has alternating black and gold stripes.1 The head is securely dated to the ninth century BCE, based on radiocarbon dating of nearby olive pits and typological […]

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Endnotes

1. For a more detailed study, see Naama Yahalom-Mack et al., “A Faience Head of a Bearded Male from Tel Abel Beth Maacah: Iconography, Technology, and Context,” Oxford Journal of Archaeology 43.4 (2024), pp. 373–398.