Prize Find

When the excavation team directed by Douglas R. Clark and Larry Herr at Tall al-‘Umayri unearthed a well-preserved Iron Age I plastered courtyard floor, no one suspected that underneath it lay more surprises: an older floor with the fragments of at least two ceramic model shrines that had been sealed underground. One of them, shown below, consists of a flat façade, which bears the remnants of red paint, fronting an open, rounded beige box measuring 16 inches high, 12 inches wide and 11.5 inches deep; the doorway is 10 inches high and 6.5 inches wide. A bird can be discerned over the doorway and palm trees adorn the outer doorposts.