Hiker Discovers an 8th Century BCE Assyrian Scarab in Lower Galilee

Latest News

Reported by the Armstrong Institute for Biblical Archaeology:

While hiking, an orange glimmer caught his attention. “After picking it up, I noticed engravings on it resembling a scarab,” he said in a press release issued today. “I contacted and reported the amazing find to the Israel Antiquities Authority.”

What Avrahamov had discovered was a nearly 2,800-year-old First Temple Period Assyrian scarab seal.

Scarab seals are named after their design, which resembles a scarab beetle. They are particularly common in ancient Egypt but are also found in other regions, including the Levant and Mesopotamia. This particular scarab, made of carnelian (a semi-precious stone), depicts a griffin, or winged-horse motif. “Similar scarabs were dated to the eighth century B.C.E.,” stated Prof. Othmar Keel of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, an expert in this field.

Read more here.