The Bronze Age: Canaan - The Ashmolean Museum

ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN TERRACOTTAS
do not have any attributes or special headdresses to indicate divinity. Van der Toorn (1998, 94) who, on
balance, interprets the Canaanite plaques as “reflections of official cult images or symbols, used outside
the cult for devotional and prophylactic purposes”, is at one with Pinch over the function of such images
in so far as he draws attention to the way in which biblical and extra-biblical Hebrew texts reveal that
matters of fertility and child-birth were of no less concern in Canaan and Israel (as in Genesis 30: 14–16
and the Song of Songs 7:14).
At Tell ed-Duweir (Lachish) a potter’s workshop situated in a cave, dated to Late Bronze II, provides a
rare demonstration that such mouldmade figurines were made by some potters at least along with their
standard ceramic repertory. The relevant finds (Tufnell 1958, 90, pl. 49:1–5) included: two ‘Astarte’
plaques; part of a mould for one; and “the lower half of an unbaked figurine, the details of which did not
turn out too plainly from the mould. The same may be said for the upper part of another plaque”.
Although apparently commonest in the Late Bronze Age, plaque figurines survived into Iron Age II
(c.1050–750 B.C.), when they were “very different from their Bronze Age predecessors” (Kletter 1996,
34ff.) (see below).
301. Bovid (); handmodelled; baked clay; buff core with creamslip; hollow-bodied
animal, legs missing and rump damaged; the hollow head is like a spout opening
at the mouth; the eyes and nose are applied in clay with deeply incised pupils
and nostrils; horns broken off.
AN1912.622 (acquired with no. 300 above). L: 10.8cm.
Macalister (1912, pl. CXXIV–VI) illustrated many fragments of hollow,
handmade animal figurines, primarily their heads, sufficiently like this one to
suggest that the reported source of it is plausible, even if they offer no clear guide
to its date. Many animal-head fragments similar to this are spouts from vessels, whereas this object has
no aperture other than the open mouth. In the absence of close published parallels it may only be broadly
dated to the later Bronze or early Iron Age.
(ii)
Tell ed-Duweir (Lachish)
Tell ed-Duweir, ancient Lachish, is situated in the low hills west of Hebron. It was first systematically
excavated in 1932–1938 by the Wellcome-Marston Expedition, directed by Starkey. Excavation of the
main settlement only reached the Iron Age II occupation levels. Evidence for earlier periods came from
caves and tombs, from a section cut into the mound and from surface clearances. Tomb (or Cave) 4004,
whence came no. 301A, consisted of three chambers, primarily used for burials in Middle Bronze IIC to
Late Bronze II, and then re-used late in that period (cf. Tufnell 1958, 281). It may originally have been cut
for use as an olive press. Tufnell (1958, 282) described it thus: “the amount and variety of the funerary
equipment and the concentration of the shattered offerings into a depth of only 30cms. suggests that the
cave was used as a charnel house. The offerings were not necessarily exceptional among the community
of Lachish, but conditions have conspired to preserve them in tenacious mud within a deep and sheltered
cave”. The Ashmolean Museum received an allocation of finds which came to England following the
official division; but only after they had been prepared for publication following World War II. Renewed
excavations at the site were directed by Ussishkin from 1973.
301A. Nude female plaque; mouldmade in high relief; dark blue glass; broken plinth; arms bent;
hands clasping breasts; rather pronounced abdomen, possibly indicating pregnancy; the
surface has deteriorated since excavation and the colour has changed; thread-hole at the
shoulder for use as a pendant.
AN1955.501; from tomb 4004 at Tell ed-Duweir (Lachish); fifteenth century B.C.; L: 5.5cm.
cf. Tufnell 1958, 33ff., pl. 27:3; Moorey 1969, pl. 12a; Barag 1970, 188–91, 199; Kühne 1969,
311, fig. 5; Winter 1983, fig. 27.
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