BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

What is it? Answer to Last Week’s BHD and Facebook Artifact Discussion

We hope that you enjoyed our What Is It? artifact discussion. The answer has been posted below the image.

A. Philistine torture device
B. Babylonian cloak tree
C. Chalcolithic scepter
D. Bronze Age soil aerator
E. Hellenistic back scratcher

Answer: C. Chalcolithic scepter

This copper scepter with Ibex heads was part of a large cache discovered in 1961 in a small cave above Nahal Mishmar in the Judean Desert. Now known as the Nahal Mishmar hoard, the collection dates to the Chalcolithic period (4000–3300 B.C.E.) and is made up mostly of copper objects—240 mace heads, 80 scepters and 10 crowns—created using the “lost-wax technique.” Scholars suggest that the hoard, which was found wrapped in a straw mat, may have been sacred artifacts from the treasury of the shrine at Ein Gedi, just 6 miles north of the cave. The treasure was probably hidden in the cave for safe-keeping when the shrine was mysteriously abandoned.