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As part of the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, Israel returned to Egypt boxes of antiquities that Israeli archaeologist Ze’ev Meshel had excavated from the eastern Sinai site of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in the mid-1970s. Among these were two pithos drawings that had significant implications for ancient Israelite religion. One (pictured here) bears an inscription invoking “Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah” or “asherah.” Yahweh of Samaria refers to the northern title of the Israelite God. Asherah (with a capital “A”) is a well-known Canaanite goddess, who some scholars subsequently understood to be God’s consort in popular Israelite religion; with a lowercase “a” it is a wooden symbol of Yahweh. Below the inscription is a drawing of two bovine figures, as well as a seated woman with a lyre. There is debate over which (if any) of these figures represent Yahweh and Asherah.