JERUSALEM, Israel – Archaeologists have discovered ancient figurines with African features made of ebony and bone at Tel Mahata, on a trade route in Israel’s Negev Desert, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which announced the findings earlier this month.
The artifacts were found in the graves of two women and a child from the Roman-Byzantine period, 1,500 years ago.
The figurines were discovered on a dig in 2017, and a team of Israeli and German researchers who studied the statuettes published their findings recently in the IAA journal, ‘Atiqot.
“The figurines indicate that a Christian community lived in the southern region of the country around 1,500 years ago, with some members possibly originating from Africa,” the researchers reported. The graves date from the 6th or 7th Century AD.
According to the IAA, “The site was located on an important trade crossroads through which passed luxury goods from Arabia and beyond.”
The report also noted, “The unearthing of African figurines in local Christian graves is a rare discovery that enriches our understanding of the cultural diversity among the region’s inhabitants some 1,500 years ago.”
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The statuettes depict men and women and were very well preserved, researchers noted. They also featured small holes, suggesting the figurines were worn as a pendant or amulet.
“It seems that the figurines depicted ancestors rather than deities. If so, it is possible that the deceased were of ‘Ethiopian’ origin and that they or their ancestors converted to Christianity and moved to the Negev,” researchers concluded.
They continued, “Ethiopians are known to have lived in many regions of the Greco-Roman world. Therefore, it is possible that the deceased were of Ethiopian origin and that they moved north to Tel Malhata.”
Israel Antiquities Authority Director Eli Escusido commented on the significance of the find, declaring, “The discoveries at Tel Malhata are moving, not only from an archaeological standpoint, but also on a human level. They serve as a powerful reminder that the Land of Israel has always been a crossroads of cultures and peoples—individuals who arrived here, integrated into the local population, yet preserved traditions and beliefs from distant homelands.”
