In Palestine, a 4500 year old statue discovered by a farmer

A hazardous discovery

In Khan Younes, south of the Gaza Strip, farmer Nidal Abu Eid made the strange discovery of a statue in the likeness of a woman adorned with a snake-shaped crown. “We found it by chance! We quickly realized that it was a precious object, but we did not know it had such a great archaeological value,” he said to the BBC. And for good reason, the 22 cm limestone statue represents, for the archaeologists of the region, a key element of the ancient history of the country!

After this discovery, Nidal Abu Eid decided to have the statue appraised by archaeologists who are formal: it is a representation of the goddess Anat, a Canaanite deity dating back about 4500 years, who represents beauty, love and war in the ancient mythology of this civilization. 

For the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Gaza, this discovery is a sign of the important archaeological and cultural wealth of Gaza, and of Palestine as a whole, where civilizations have been settled and lived side by side for several millennia.