Trilobites: 3,800-Year-Old Statue Resembling ‘The Thinker’ Found in Israel

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Reading this article right now, you might resemble this 3,800-year old statue resting its cheek upon its hand. It’s a common pose for computer browsing, but a rare sight in Bronze Age pottery.

A group of high school students helped archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority unearth this clay vessel in the city of Yehud near Tel Aviv in September. They were excavating a burial site when someone came across the seven-inch statue covered in dirt and surrounded by ceramic shards.

“It was a very exciting moment for me and the other archaeologists who came to see it, and for the other students and workers,” said Gilad Itach, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority and a doctoral candidate in archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. “For the best of our knowledge, no such jug had ever been found before.”

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With its wide eyes and blank stare, the figurine seemed as if it were lost deep in thought. It appeared to Mr. Itach that the sculpture had been carefully crafted and then attached to the neck of the jug. At first they found it broken into pieces. But over the course of a few days they were able to piece together its hat, reattach its arms and repair the jug. Now fully restored, the little man bares an uncanny resemblance to Auguste Rodin’s famous statue “The Thinker.”

The researchers announced the finding last Wednesday.

Along with the vessel, the team also found arrowheads, daggers, an ax head and animal bones from sheep and possibly donkeys. The researchers think the items were funeral offerings.

Mr. Itach said he was not sure why the deceased person received the pensive piece of pottery. It’s a mystery he and his team will continue to ponder, perhaps while resting their cheeks in their hands.