BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

What is it?

Multiple Choices for a BHD and Facebook Discussion

Thank you all for participating in the What is it? artifact discussion. This page has been updated with the answer and some information on this baking tray. Check out the latest “What is it?” in the brand-new November/December 2012 issue of BAR.

A. peg board
B. cheese grater
C. incense holder
Answer: D. baking tray

The Lord’s Prayer includes a petition for “our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11; Luke 11:3), and indeed bread was in constant demand as a staple of the ancient diet. The production of bread also seemed a never-ending part of ancient life—from growing, harvesting and threshing the wheat in the fields to grinding the grains, mixing the dough and baking the loaves in the home.

This ceramic baking tray would have been used repeatedly on a daily basis to prepare a family’s most essential food. Its exact provenance is unknown, but based on comparisons with similar examples, this baking tray is believed to have been made in Israel during the late second or early first millennium B.C.E. Although different methods for baking bread were used throughout antiquity, perforated baking trays like this one held flat loaves of dough over hot coals in an oven or fire pit, allowing the bread to bake quickly without touching the dirt, soot and ash.


13 Responses

  1. The Petitions in the Lord’s Prayer | carmenstulips :-)dream*esteem says:

    […] did not say this is what you should say but he says “what to say.”  In reading the article biblicalarchaeology.org  it describes this prayer as being a petition to God for daily bread. Daily bread is significant […]

  2. Mark says:

    Baking tray.
    Holes allow for even heating/drying

  3. Moshe says:

    A strainer for the flour that composed the meal offerings (Mincha)

  4. Eric Bess says:

    Baking Tray

  5. judith says:

    I think it is some kind of peg board and it has an incription in it the way the little pegs are laid out….

  6. Glenn Wooden says:

    baking tray

  7. steve says:

    It appears similar to the wooden graters the deep jungle peoples in the Amazon use to grate manioc root. This one appears to be hardened clay with embedded chips of stone or something.

  8. Jonathan says:

    Jonathan says A) Peg Board

  9. D. Huckey says:

    Incense holder

  10. anetta says:

    D. A baking tray

  11. david eitam says:

    baking tray

  12. david eitam says:

    Turó D’en Boscà

  13. Penny Zerr says:

    Baking Tray

Write a Reply or Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


13 Responses

  1. The Petitions in the Lord’s Prayer | carmenstulips :-)dream*esteem says:

    […] did not say this is what you should say but he says “what to say.”  In reading the article biblicalarchaeology.org  it describes this prayer as being a petition to God for daily bread. Daily bread is significant […]

  2. Mark says:

    Baking tray.
    Holes allow for even heating/drying

  3. Moshe says:

    A strainer for the flour that composed the meal offerings (Mincha)

  4. Eric Bess says:

    Baking Tray

  5. judith says:

    I think it is some kind of peg board and it has an incription in it the way the little pegs are laid out….

  6. Glenn Wooden says:

    baking tray

  7. steve says:

    It appears similar to the wooden graters the deep jungle peoples in the Amazon use to grate manioc root. This one appears to be hardened clay with embedded chips of stone or something.

  8. Jonathan says:

    Jonathan says A) Peg Board

  9. D. Huckey says:

    Incense holder

  10. anetta says:

    D. A baking tray

  11. david eitam says:

    baking tray

  12. david eitam says:

    Turó D’en Boscà

  13. Penny Zerr says:

    Baking Tray

Write a Reply or Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


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