JERUSALEM, ISRAEL—A 2,200-year-old incense shovel crafted in the shape of a duck was unearthed at Khirbet el-Eika near the Sea of Galilee by a team led by Uzi Leibner of The Hebrew University. Khirbet el-Eika was a fortified town built during the third century B.C. and destroyed around A.D. 140. Leibner thinks that the duck shovel, which is of Greco-Roman design and found in a public building, may have been a cultic object. Similar designs have been found on other ancient objects in the Levant, including two bronze ladles from a shipwreck off the coast of Ashkelon. And Greek amphorae bearing stamps from Rhodes and Kos were found in a nearby structure. These huge wine vessels would have had to have been transported 75 miles inland, and were probably imported by wealthy gentiles. “We can’t say for sure, but the hints seem to point to a pagan population [at Khirbet el-Eika],” Leibner told The Times of Israel. To read about mystery cults in the Greco-Roman world, go to "Saving the Villa of the Mysteries."
