BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

The Bronze Lion Heads of Roman Judea

Unique bronze lions unearthed near Tel Aviv

The Roman era bronze lion heads. Courtesy Dafna Gazit, IAA.

Excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority northeast of Tel Aviv revealed four beautifully crafted bronze lion-headed discs. Uncovered in a Roman-period tomb, the discs probably served as ornamentation on the carrying handles of a wooden coffin belonging to a wealthy individual.

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Ancient Funerary Art

Dating to the first or second century CE, the lion-headed discs were discovered during salvage excavations in a Roman-period (c. 37 BCE–324 CE) cist tomb at the site of Khirbat Ibreika. Each disc measures around 4 inches in diameter and is unique, bearing a slightly different expression or having a somewhat different design of the mane, eyes, and nose. While similar discs have been discovered in graves around the region, the Khirbat Ibreika discs also feature a slightly different design.

“This is a unique and rare set of finds,” said Elie Haddad and Elisheva Zwiebel, directors of the excavation, in a statement. “The carrying handle ring, which was attached—in most of the known examples from the Roman world, through the lion’s mouth—was joined, in this case, at the top of the lion’s head. It seems this enabled freer and wider movement of the handles that served to lift the coffin and integrate it into a burial procession, while passing bars through the rings to better handle its transport.”

Artists reconstruction of what the coffin could have looked like. Courtesy Yakov Shmidov, IAA.

Although lions are often found in the art of Judea, the decorated discs are not sufficient to identify the burial as belonging to a Judean, a Roman, or a person from some other ethnic or cultural group. Indeed, the use of lion-heads as ring holders was a common practice among many ancient cultures. Some of the earliest examples are lion-headed door knockers dating to the fifth century BCE discovered in northern Greece. For now, the only thing that can be said for certain is that the elaborate craftsmanship of the discs reflects the high status of the individual buried in the tomb.

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