18-05-2025
1,600-year-old African ebony figurines found in Christian necropolis in Israel
Archaeologists have uncovered two ebony figurines in a Christian necropolis south of Tel Malhata settlement, suggesting the presence of possibly Ethiopian members of that community.
Between July 2016 and May 2017, two salvage excavations at a future military base unearthed two burials out of 155 tombs with signs of African ownership.
Researchers described the bone figurines as rare. However, the black wood carvings were unique. Authors of the new study published in IAA's journal Atiqot called the two ebony figurines 'the most interesting finds' in their excavation.
Whoever carved them used a species of tree from Sri Lanka and southern India, highlighting a trade network. The study presents an early Christian enclave and an African family, most likely, that called the Negev desert home.
In two neighboring graves, archaeologists unearthed two ebony pendants, suggesting a familial connection between the deceased.
Two female heads carved in bone and ebony were buried with a young woman who died between 20 and 30 years old. Inside the tomb of a young child aged 6-8, most likely male, archaeologists found a male figurine. They suspect it was her boy. The holes punched in the artifacts indicate that they would have worn them.
Tel Malhata in the Negev desert in Israel sat at a crossroads, hinting at why ebony or this woman might have appeared here in the first place.
The Diospyros ebenum tree, native to Sri Lanka and Southern India, gained notoriety in the ancient world for its precious black wood used in luxury items.
Traders transported the ebony to Egypt or the Horn of Africa by ship. From there, trade caravans brought it through the Negev, as a significant trade in that larger network route ran nearby Tel Malhata.
Archaeologists couldn't confirm whether the faces were carved in Africa or Israel. However, the ebony would have traveled along these pathways, and they suspect that they represented ancestors, not deities, suggesting that they kept an older tradition even if they were Christian.
Researchers attempted to analyze the skeletal remains without clear conclusions as to the relationship between the adult woman and the male child. Given the clear association between the male and female figurines, archaeologists concluded that they probably belonged to the same family.
Under Justin I, the 6th century CE, Ethiopians were among the first Africans to convert to Christianity—the burials date between the sixth and seventh centuries. So archaeologists deduced that they were from this demographic, possibly settling in the Negev. Many Ethiopians lived in the Byzantine world, the study explained.
However, in Israel, the presence of ebony figurines at Tel Malhata was a significant and surprising first.
As no Jewish graves have yet been discovered, that would suggest the presence of a well-established Christian community with one African, most likely Ethiopian, family. The positioning of their bodies at an east-west orientation further confirmed their religious affiliation.
Perhaps further tests will reveal more about the Ethiopian family that lived in the desert in a Christian community.
Read the study in Atiqot.
