During his hiking trip up an archaeological mound at Tel Rehovin in Israel, 7-year-old Ori Greenhut discovered a massive 3,400-year-old clay figurine depicting a naked woman, reported Fox News. Antiquity experts have since examined the item and noted comparisons to the Canaanite culture of the 15th to 13th centuries BCE.
"Ori returned home with the impressive figurine and the excitement was great," Ori's mother, Moriya Greenhut, said in a statement. "We explained to him this is an ancient artifact and that archaeological finds belong to the State."
The figurine was promptly given to the Israel Antiquities Authority, an act that a spokesperson from the government authority was very impressed with, according to NBC News.
"It doesn't happen a lot, but there is increasing awareness of people calling up and informing the authority that they found an artifact," said the spokesperson.
Most agree that the figure was created through the pressing of soft clay into mold, although the meaning behind its design is still being debated.
"Some researchers think the figure depicted here is that of a real flesh-and-blood woman, and others view her as the fertility goddess Astarte, known from Canaanite sources and from the Bible," said Amihai Mazar, a professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who examined the figurine.
"It is highly likely that the term trafim mentioned in the Bible indeed refers to figurines of this kind," said Mazar. "Evidently, the figurine belonged to one of the residents of the city of Rehov, which was then ruled by the central government of the Egyptian pharaohs."
The finding is not the first of its kind - many figurines depicting females have been discovered in the region, some that are modeled after goddesses and others that could be portraits of everyday women from the time, reported News OXY.
