Discover through a particular object
A particular object, not a kind: every page here starts from a collection record, quotes its dating as worded, and separates what the record says from what can be inferred from it.
A kind of find describes a group: pottery, inscriptions, coins. An object is one item with a record number, a holder and a date as published by its source. Object pages keep three things apart: what you see, what the record says, and where the object is now. A field the source did not give stays empty.
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Filters combine, and the address keeps the selection: refresh it, share it, come back to it.
19 objects Order: by the source's normalised date, earliest first; objects without a placeable range come last.
Object
A human cranium with a face modelled in plaster, one eye made from a shell divided in two. It was excavated at Jericho in 1953 and is on display today at the British Museum; on this site it is documented in text only.
Text frame in place of a photograph
Human bone; plaster; shellHeight 17 cm; width 14.60 cm; depth 18 cm; weight 3.40 kg
The source states no licence for its image, so it is not reproduced here
Object
A polished stone tool less than five centimetres long, which the record describes in one word: "celt". A Neolithic object from Crete that recalls how long the Neolithic is outside the Levant too.
Object
A marble figure of a woman, 62.79 cm high, which the museum attributes to the "Bastis Master" and dates 2600-2400 BCE, Early Cycladic II. The record names no findspot and no island: the figure is placed on the timeline by date, culture and style only.
Text frame in place of a photograph
MarbleH. 24 3/4 in. (62.79 cm)
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Object
A painted wooden model of a single workshop in which bread is baked and beer brewed in separate rooms. It was found in 1920 in a hidden chamber of Meketre's tomb at Thebes, one of twenty-four almost perfectly preserved models.
Text frame in place of a photograph
Wood, gesso, paint, linenl. 73 cm (28 3/4 in); w. 55 cm (21 5/8 in); h. 29 cm (11 7/16 in); average height of figures: 21 cm (8 1/4 in.)
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Object
A one-centimetre amulet of glazed faience found in the debris of a tomb at Lisht South. The record documents an exact findspot and a display in Gallery 109; what it lacks is an open photograph.
Text frame in place of a photograph
Blue-green glazed faiencel. 1 cm (3/8 in)
The source record has no image
Object
A blue faience hippopotamus figurine found in a shaft associated with the tomb chapel of Senbi II at Meir. Three of its legs have been restored: according to the museum, they were probably broken on purpose, so that the animal could not harm the deceased.
Text frame in place of a photograph
FaienceL. 20 cm (7 7/8 in.); W. 7.5 cm (2 15/16 in.); H. 11.2 cm (4 7/16 in.)
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Object
A small seal-amulet of glazed steatite that the museum records "From Canaan, Levant" and dates by an Egyptian dynasty. Place, dating scheme and culture are three separate questions here.
Object
An uninscribed limestone figurine found in the tomb of Sennedjem at Deir el-Medina in the excavations of 1885-86. The museum dates it to the reign of Ramesses II and displays it in Gallery 126.
Object
A Cypriot vessel, a Phoenician inscription and a findspot nobody recorded: one object that teaches us to separate what is written on it from where it came from.
Object
A marble statue almost two metres high that the museum describes as one of the earliest marble statues of a human figure carved in Attica. It marked the grave of a young Athenian aristocrat and is dated ca. 590-580 BCE.
Text frame in place of a photograph
Marble, Naxian76 5/8 × 20 5/16 × 24 7/8 in. (194.6 × 51.6 × 63.2 cm); height without plinth 76 5/8 in. (194.6 cm); height of head 12 in. (30.5 cm); length of face 8 7/8 in. (22.6 cm); shoulder width 20 5/16 in. (51.6 cm)
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Object
A turquoise-green glass jug 9.5 cm high, blown in a four-part mold. The record documents the mold seams on the vessel but does not say where the jug came from; it is therefore recorded in the region "place not stated".
Object
A Roman civic coin from Asia Minor: a bust of Alexander Severus on one side, a table with imperial busts and sacrificial implements on the other. The coin that accompanies the article on coins and hoards as a comparison, not as a coin from the hoard.
Object
A small blue-green glass jug with blue trails around the rim and neck. The record gives a three-century range that crosses the site's boundary between "Roman" and "Byzantine", so the jug is not placed on the timeline.
Object
A six-sided glass jug shaped in a mould and dated 500-650. The museum calls it a vessel "of the Jerusalem type" but says nothing of where it was made or found, so it is shown by its source date only.
Text frame in place of a photograph
Moulded glassOverall: 6 3/16 × 2 15/16 × 2 11/16 in. (15.7 × 7.4 × 6.8 cm)
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Object
A fragment of a wall painting on stucco, 9th-10th century, found in the drain of a house in the Sabz Pushan neighbourhood of Nishapur. The record names no period, so it is placed by its date range.
Text frame in place of a photograph
Stucco; paintedH. 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm), W. 10 1/4 in. (26 cm); mount: H. 11 in. (27.9 cm), W. 10 5/16 (26.2 cm)
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Object
A figurine of a nude man carved in hippopotamus ivory, found in 1958 in a cache in room 721 at Beersheba. The Louvre's record gives it two dates that do not agree, the 5th millennium BCE and 3500-3000 BCE, so it is not placed on the timeline.
Text frame in place of a photograph
Hippopotamus ivory, carved ("ivoire d'hippopotame"; "sculpté")Height 24.8 cm; length 4.7 cm; thickness 4.2 cm
The source states no licence for its image, so it is not reproduced here
Object
A sherd of a pottery vessel with a Hebrew inscription in ink, found at Lachish and on display today in London. The ink is very faded, the record gives no numeric date, and it must not be confused with Letter II.
Text frame in place of a photograph
PotteryLength 6.40 cm; width 9.50 cm; thickness 0.30-0.50 cm
The source states no licence for its image, so it is not reproduced here
Object
A small merchant ship discovered in 1985 off the Carmel coast, conserved for years and displayed today at the Hecht Museum. The date "about 400 BCE" is the museum's; the placement in the Persian period is ours.
Object
A wooden boat exposed in 1986 on the bed of the Sea of Galilee, conserved for 14 years and displayed at the Yigal Allon Centre. The centre dates it "some 2,000 years ago": a wording without a range, so the boat is not placed on the timeline.
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