Image Details

Carl Andrews/Courtesy the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon

AN AMAZING FIND. In the last few days of the 1990 excavation season, this silver-plated bronze calf was discovered at Ashkelon, buried among the shattered pieces of a clay shrine (shown reconstructed in its find spot). The calf and the clay shrine that housed it were found in a sanctuary storeroom located on the slope of the Middle Bronze Age ramparts of the city. Stager stands just behind the 4-inch-tall calf, which dates to the first half of the 16th century B.C.E. and was associated with the worship of the Canaanite god Baal.