A school outing, dozens of children carefree running up and down and a teacher focused on keeping everyone under control. The day started out as usual for Hanna Spitzer, a primary school teacher at Efrat Alumim School in the West Bank, but it was going to end in a surprising way.
Spitzer took his students on a field trip to Tel Azekah, a hilltop archaeological site with Bronze Age remains about 45 kilometers from Tel Aviv. The site has been identified with the place where, according to the Bible, David faced the giant Goliath.
Upon arrival, the teacher asked all the boys and girls to behave, that they were visiting a very special historical place where there were many ancient remains and unique artifacts on the ground. As an example, she bent down and picked up a piece of pottery to show her students.
What Hanna Spitzer never thought was that her announcement was going to come true in just a while, the Israel Antiquities Authority has revealed in a statement. “The children were so excited that they spent the visit collecting all kinds of ancient-looking objects and rocks,” she recalls.
Towards the end of the day, the teacher realized that two of her students had been left behind. When she returned to ask them if something was wrong, Amalia Riverkin told her that they had found an item and showed her a small rock that looked like a bead of hers.
Hanna, who has a postgraduate degree in Jewish art, immediately recognized that the stone was not “just a rock.” “I looked at it closely and it had incised lines, I turned it over and saw ancient Egyptian writing. At that moment I realized that what I was holding was thousands of years old. It’s crazy!” she points out.
Little Amalia had found “something unique” and her teacher had to explain to her that they couldn’t take it home, that they had to deliver that object to archaeologists so they could study it. The next day, Hanna Spitzer contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority to deliver the stone.
Once analyzed, experts have determined that it was a dung beetle-shaped talisman, a sacred object for the ancient Egyptians, a symbol of a new life. These types of amulets, sometimes used as seals, are evidence of Egyptian presence and rule in the Mediterranean Levant, including the Israel region, some 3,500 years ago.
The beetle was identified by Dr. Ido Koch, from the Department of Archeology at Tel Aviv University. Analysis has revealed that it dates from the time of the New Kingdom of Egypt (16th to 11th centuries BC) and is named after the sun god Amun-Ra, who was one of the most important deities in Egypt during this period.
Dozens of scarab amulets from this era bearing her name have been found in the southern Levant, including five at Tel Azekah, now joined by the discovery by little Amalia Riverkin, which will help create a more complete picture of the site, the researchers say.
“Many people have antiquities in their homes that came into their possession under different circumstances: some were collected in the fields during farm work or hikes, and others were inherited,” explains Eli Escusido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority. By law they have to report these discoveries, as they are legally public historical treasures.
