Photo by Zev Radovan; drawing courtesy Ephraim Stern
A face only a mother could love. After piecing together several clay fragments (shaded at right), archaeologists at Dor were able to reconstruct a Gorgon’s head (left). They had earlier discovered a large left eye (see photograph) and taken it for part of a Phoenician cult mask. With the later find, the excavators realized the pieces did not all match—the later fragments were smaller and included a left eye. Stern explains that these pieces belonged to a roof tile whose end was crafted in the shape of a Gorgon’s head. Interestingly, this Greek tile dates to the fifth or sixth century B.C.E., when Dor was a predominantly Phoenician city.