Unique Gold Earring Found at Tel Megiddo

Tel Aviv University archaeologists have discovered a collection of gold and silver jewelry, dated from around 1100 B.C., hidden in a vessel at the archaeological site of Tel Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. One piece – a gold earring decorated with molded ibexes, or wild goats – is “without parallel,” the researchers believe.

The vessel was found in 2010, but remained uncleaned while awaiting a molecular analysis of its content,” said Prof Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures. When the archaeologists were finally able to wash out the dirt, pieces of jewelry, including a ring, earrings, and beads, flooded from the vessel.
They believe that the collection, which was discovered in the remains of a private home in the northern part of Megiddo, belongs to a time period called “Iron I,” and that at least some of the pieces could have originated in nearby Egypt.
“Some of the materials and designs featured in the jewelry, including beads made from carnelian stone, are consistent with Egyptian designs from the same period,” noted Ph.D. candidate Eran Arie, who supervises the area where the hoard was found.
When the researchers removed the ceramic jug from the excavation site, they had no idea there was jewelry hidden within. The jewelry was well preserved and wrapped in textiles, but the circumstances surrounding it are mysterious.
According to Prof Finkelstein, it is likely that the jug was not the jewelry’s normal storage place. “It’s clear that people tried to hide the collection, and for some reason they were unable to come back to pick it up. The owners could have perished or been forced to flee.”
Professor Emeritus David Ussishkin of Tel Aviv University believes that it was the jewelry collection of the Canaanite woman who lived in the house.
“The assortment of jewelry is also out of the ordinary,” Arie said. Though the collection includes a number of lunette (moon-shaped) earrings of common Canaanite origin, researchers found an abundance of gold items in the collection and a number of beads made from carnelian, which was frequently used in the making of Egyptian jewelry in the same period. This points to a strong Egyptian connection, whether in influence or origin.
Such a connection would not be surprising, according to Prof Eric Cline of George Washington University in Washington, DC, who stated that interactions between Egypt and Megiddo are known to have taken place during both the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
The most notable find is a gold earring with a pattern of molded wild goats. “For unique items, we work to find parallels to help place the items in their correct cultural and chronological settings, but in this case we still haven’t found anything,” the researchers said.
They hope that analysis of both the textiles in which the jewelry was wrapped and the jewelry itself will tell them more about the origins of the collection. If the gold is pure rather than a mixture of gold and silver, for example, the metal most likely will have come from Egypt itself, a region that was poor in silver resources but rich in gold.

 http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/article00332.html