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Flanking the watermelon representing the villainous Abimelech of Judges 9 are authors Denise Herr, left, and Mary Boyd, who staged a millstone toss at the Tall al-‘Umayri excavation to affirm the Biblical account of the woman of Thebez. In that narrative an unnamed woman kills the fearsome warrior by throwing an upper millstone on his head from a tower. Some Biblical scholars doubt the veracity of the account, suggesting that an ordinary woman could not have hefted so heavy a stone with such skill and accuracy. Herr and Boyd, using upper millstones excavated at ‘Umayri, were determined to prove the critics wrong. (Garrick Herr poses as Abimelech, whose menacing face was drawn by dig artist Rhonda Root.)