- Three-year-old Ziv Nitzan found a 3,800-year-old scarab amulet during a family trip to Tel Azekah, Israel in March
- Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor, an expert in ancient amulets and seals, identified the item as a Canaanite scarab from the Middle Bronze Age
- The item was found in Tel Azekah, which is where the battle between David and Goliath in the Bible’s Book of Samuel took place
A little girl is being celebrated for finding a very ancient artifact.
On Tuesday, April 2, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed in a Facebook post that three-year-old Ziv Nitzan of Ramot Meir found a 3,800-year-old scarab amulet during a family trip to Tel Azekah, Israel in March.
“We were walking along the path, and then Ziv bent down – and out of all the stones around her, she picked up this particular stone,” Ziv’s sister Omer Nitzan said in a statement, according to the post.
“When she rubbed it and removed the sand from it, we saw something was different about it,” she continued. “I called my parents to come see the beautiful stone, and we realized we had discovered an archaeological find! We immediately reported this to the Israel Antiquities Authority.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
An expert has determined that the item was a Canaanite scarab from the Middle Bronze Age, around 3,800 years ago.
“Scarabs were used in this period as seals and as amulets,” Dr. Daphna Ben-Tor, an expert in ancient amulets and seals, said in the aforementioned Facebook post. “They were found in graves, in public buildings and in private homes. Sometimes they bear symbols and messages, that reflect religious beliefs or status.”
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, scarab seals are small objects that originate from ancient Egypt “and designed in the shape of a dung beetle,” as the Facebook post cited.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
“This beetle, considered sacred in the eyes of the ancient Egyptians, was a symbol of new life, because of the dung ball it created and then laid its eggs into it, from which new life would hatch,” the post continued.
The scarab also had religious messages and meanings for the Egyptians.
Tel Azekah, which is near the city of Beit Shemesh, “was also known as a key feature in the biblical battle scene between David and Goliath as described in the Book of Samuel (Samuel I 17:1),” the post highlighted.
“The scarab found by Ziv joins a long list of Egyptian and Canaanite finds discovered here, which attest to the close ties and cultural influences between Canaan and Egypt during that period,” Prof. Oded Lipschits, director of the Tel Aviv University archaeological dig, who went to meet Ziv and her sisters, said as a part of the Facebook statement.
Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu added, “The seal that little Ziv found during a family trip to Tel Azekah connects us to a grand story, that of the ancient civilizations that lived in this land thousands of years ago. The scarab Ziv found also reminds us that in the Land of Israel, even children can be a part of discovering history.”
On behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Judah Region District Archaeologist Semyon Gendler praised Ziv and her family for reporting the discovery, with the child also being awarded a certificate of appreciation for good citizenship.
“The ancient find will be included in a special display for Passover that the Israel Antiquities Authority has prepared at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel, alongside other finds from the days of Egypt and Canaan, most of which are being displayed for the first time,” the Facebook statement read.
Read the full article here
