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(Left) Courtesy of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon/(Right) Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

EGYPTIANS—VISITORS OR RESIDENTS? Egyptian imports at Ashkelon were of the highest quality, as evidenced by a bronze statuette of Osiris (left), the Egyptian god of the underworld, which was discovered in the 604 B.C.E. destruction layer of Ashkelon’s winery. The statue’s twin (right) was discovered at Ashkelon in 1936 by J.H. Iliffe. However, these items were not used by the Philistine population of Ashkelon but by Egyptians living there. Both of the statues were discovered near other cultic items and testify to the presence of a place at which Egyptians—or Egyptianized natives—would have worshiped.