The Thinker, 1800 BCE

A team of archaeologists and Israeli high school students unearthed a unique 3,800-year-old Bronze Age figurine, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced. The eight-inch-tall figurine, who sits on a jug looking googly-eyed and pensive, was dug up on the last day of excavations at a site in the central Israeli town of Yehud.

“It seems that first the jug, which is typical of the period, was prepared, and afterwards the unique sculpture was added, the likes of which have never before been discovered in previous research,” Gilad Itach, the authority’s excavation director, said. “The level of precision and attention to detail in creating this almost 4,000-year-old sculpture is extremely impressive.

“The neck of the jug served as a base for forming the upper portion of the figure, after which the arms, legs, and a face were added to the sculpture,” he continued.

The figurine was discovered along with a number of other items, including daggers, an ax head, and arrows, which archaeologists believe were buried as part of funeral offers for a respected member of the ancient community.

The Israeli students who joined in the dig were part of a new high school matriculation program to help train future archaeologists.

israel21c.org