Gaza farmer accidentally discovers 4,500-year-old Canaanite goddess of war statue
The goddess of beauty, love, and war is now above ground. A farmer discovered the head of a 4,500-year-old stone statue in the Gaza Strip — it depicts the Canaanite deity Anat, BBC News reports.
The farmer was reportedly digging on his Khan Younis land, located in the south of the Strip, when he discovered an artifact. Farmer Nidal Abu Eid says finding the stone wasn't his intention, it happened by chance. After washing off the mud with water, he noticed the 8.7-inch carving was the face of a goddess wearing a serpent crown.
"We realized that it was a precious thing, but we didn't know it was of such great archaeological value," Eid adds. "We thank God, and we are proud that it stayed in our land, in Palestine, since the Canaanite times." Jamal Abu Rida of the Hamas-run Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said during a Tuesday press conference that the artifact was "resistant against time."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Experts examined the statue and it now sits on display in Qasr al-Basha, a Gaza museum. Rida says the statue not only represents beauty, love, and war but also makes a political point. "Such discoveries prove that Palestine has civilization and history, and no one can deny or falsify this history," he said.
As The Daily Beast's Philippe Naughton reviews, the Canaanites "were a Semitic-speaking civilization in the second millennium B.C. whose lands covered modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, and parts of Syria and Jordan." Read more at BBC News.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kelsee Majette has worked as a social media editor at The Week since 2022. In 2019, she got her start in local television as a digital producer and fill-in weather reporter at NTV News. Kelsee also co-produced a lifestyle talk show while working in Nebraska and later transitioned to 13News Now as a digital content producer.
-
The lab-made meat that 'could kill the EU'
Under The Radar Concerned at 'unintended consequences for farming' some farmers are 'turning rabid' over the rise of cultured meat
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Magazine solutions - August 2, 2024
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - August 2, 2024
By The Week Staff Published
-
Magazine printables - August 2, 2024
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - August 2, 2024
By The Week Staff Published
-
Nasa's 'strangest find': pure sulphur on Mars
Under the Radar Curiosity rover discovers elemental sulphur rocks, adding to 'growing evidence' of life-sustaining elements on Red Planet
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Why February 29 is a leap day
Speed Read It all started with Julius Caesar
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US spacecraft nearing first private lunar landing
Speed Read If touchdown is successful, it will be the first U.S. mission to the moon since 1972
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Scientists create 'meaty' rice for eco-friendly protein
Speed Read Korean scientists have invented a new hybrid food, consisting of beef muscle and fat cells grown inside grains of rice
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published