Zev Radovan, courtesy of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums

First century A.D. lamps depicting menorahs had more than seven branches (see photograph), in keeping with a talmudic prohibition against depicting the seven-branched Temple menorah. By the third and fourth centuries A.D., however, this prohibition was often disregarded, or was interpreted to apply only to three-dimensional depictions. Lamps produced by the Beit Nattif workshop in southern Judea typically bore a seven-branched menorah flanked by other ritual objects used in the Temple, an incense shovel (see photograph) and shofar, or ram’s horn.