Cool Finds Archaeologists Unearth Two Rare African Figurines in 1,500-Year-Old Christian Burials in Israel The artifacts were buried in the graves of a young woman and child, who may have converted to Christianity in Africa before traveling to the region, researchers say This ebony figurine was found in a child's grave. Dafna Gazit / Israel Antiquities Authority Archaeologists in Israel have found two tiny African figurines buried in early Christian graves. Dating back roughly 1,500 years, the artifacts are carved from rare ebony wood that originated in India or Sri Lanka. The burials are located in a necropolis in Tel Malhata, an archaeological site in the Negev desert. Humans have occupied Tel Malhata since the Middle Bronze Age, and hundreds of graves have been found in the cemetery. According to new research published in ‘Atiqot, the journal of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), three of those graves belonged to two women and a child who died in the sixth or seventh century C.E. These burials contained a trove of grave goods—including bronze jewelry, alabaster jars and five carved figurines. The ebony figurines are quite rare, while the bone figurines are more common for the region. Dafna Gazit / Israel Antiquities Authority “It is a very special find,” Noé D. Michael, an archaeologist at the IAA and the University of Cologne in Germany, tells Haaretz’s Ruth Schuster. Three of the five figurines were made from bone, and the researchers say that bone artifacts of this kind were commonly used in domestic rituals and burials in the region. However, the two others are quite rare. They were carved from ebony, and they depict a man and woman with “typical African features,” per the study. This ebony figurine was found in a young woman's grave. Dafna Gazit / Israel Antiquities Authority “As far as we know, no such figurine had ever been identified in Israel, Jordan [or] our region,” Michael tells the Times of Israel’s Rossella Tercatin. During the sixth and seventh centuries, Tel Malhata stood at the intersection of major trading routes “where merchants from southern Arabia, India and Africa passed,” according to a statement from the IAA. The grave goods reflect this international exchange. Ebony, a kind of dark wood, was a valuable import. “Experts at Tel Aviv University tested the wood and confirmed it came from India or Sri Lanka,” Michael tells the Times of Israel. “An ebony trade between Asia and Egypt and the Horn of Africa is attested starting from the fourth century C.E.” The two ebony figurines were found in the graves of a woman who died between the ages of 20 and 30 and a child who died between the ages of 6 and 8. In the statement, the researchers explain that the artifacts could have been “intimate personal items carrying with them a story of identity, tradition and memory.” Each figurine features a small hole through which a cord might have been threaded, allowing the owner to wear it around their neck.“Since the tombs were close and presented the same kind of burial gifts, they were probably a mother and a child,” Michael tells the Times of Israel. “Unfortunately, we could not extract DNA remains from the bones to run a test.” Two of the bone figurines were also found in these burials. The third was discovered in the tomb of a woman who died between the ages of 18 and 21. The team thinks these individuals may have traveled north from Africa, where conversion to Christianity was becoming increasingly common. As the researchers say in the statement, “It is possible that the figures represent ancestors, and thus they reflect traditions passed down from generation to generation—even after the adoption of the Christian religion.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.