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“The cookingware and storage vessels surrounding this woman represent a fairly standard first-century A.D. assortment,” says J. Robert Teringo, author and illustrator of The Land and People Jesus Knew.

Teringo consulted archaeologists and searched museums in the United States and Israel to ensure accurate reconstruction of artifacts and their surroundings in his book.

“The clay cookstove is a good example,” notes Teringo. “I modeled it after a similar stove in Jerusalem’s Israel Museum, one that had been excavated from Masada by Yigael Yadin.”

“The vessel with the perforated stand behind and to the right of the woman is for boiling water. Dry grasses and twigs were burned in the sand to heat the clay pitcher resting on it,” Teringo says. “Though I’ve seen many of them in museums and collections, the first one I saw was pictured in an article in BAR on ancient housewares.”