Zev Radovan

Like a risque knick-knack, this female-shaped vessel delivered libations through the holes in its breasts, probably as part of a fertility ritual. Found in a favissa—a burial pit for discarded votive figurines—the 13-inch-tall pottery figurine lay in the Philistine stratum of the sanctuary at Tel Qasile, near Tel Aviv. This sanctuary was destroyed early in the tenth century B.C.E., probably by King David, but was rebuilt soon after to serve either the Philistine residents who remained in the city or possibly the new Israelite inhabitants.