Image Details
Ilan Sztulman/Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavation Project
An oil lamp nestles inside two bowls. Lifting off the upturned bowl reveals the three pieces that had been buried just below floor level in the southeast corner of the main hall of building 350. Their placement in the corner of the hall, coupled with the absence of burn marks on the lamp, strongly suggests that they were deposited in the building as part of a ceremony associated with its founding—a practice known from other locations in ancient Canaan and Philistia, such as at the site of Tel Gezer.