Image Details

Israel Antiquities Authority/Mariana Salzberger

A figurine (shown here, compare with photo of two smiling faces) shaped like a violin is sculpted with breasts, probably to represent a female torso. These violin-shaped figurines connect the Peqi’in cave with the Chalcolithic temple at Gilat, in the Negev Desert of southern Israel, where large numbers of similar objects were found. The Gilat figurines, however, were not associated with burials.