A Hellenistic-era, duck-head incense shovel from the Galilee

ARCHAEOLOGY: If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, is it a clue to the rise of Jewish Galilee? An elegant 2,200-year-old Hellenistic bronze incense shovel found this summer could help determine how and when Judeans settled the hills near the Kinneret (Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel).

The tapered head, flattened bill and graceful curve of the neck are unquestionably that of a duck. The bird’s head decorates a small, 2,200-year-old bronze incense shovel found during this summer’s dig at a Hellenistic-era site near the Sea of Galilee, and its ancient owners may be the key to an investigation into how and when ancient Judeans populated the Galilee.

A Hebrew University team led by Dr. Uzi Leibner discovered the shovel amid the ruins of Khirbet el-Eika, a site just west of the Sea of Galilee near the Horns of Hattin, during August’s excavations. Leibner sought to elucidate who the inhabitants of the Galilee were in the early Second Temple period.

[...]