Sometimes you see a story like this one and think about how small the world really is.
This farmer in Gaza just discovered what archaeologists believe is a 4,500-year-old statue of the Canaanite goddess Anat.
From CNN:
A Palestinian farmer working his land in Gaza has uncovered the head of a 4,500-year-old statue of Canaanite goddess Anat.
The head, which was unveiled to the public Tuesday, was found in Sheikh Hamouda in Khan Younis, Jamal Abu Rida, director of Gaza's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, said at a press conference.
"At first, I hoped to sell it to someone to make some money," Nidal Abu Eid, the farmer, told The New Arab, "but an archaeologist told me that it was of great archaeological value."
Staff at the ministry concluded that the head belonged to a statue of Anat, the goddess of love, beauty and war in Canaanite mythology, Rida said.
For those who aren't familiar with the Old Testament, the Canaanites lived in the land God had given to Israel prior to the Israelites' conquest of the lands.
Joshua was commanded to destroy all the Canaanites who were dwelling in said land.
And now, a few millennia later, this farmer has found one of the idols the Canaanites would have worshipped.
Rida called the statue "a symbol for the oldest human civilization that lived in Gaza City."
The statue will go on display at the Pasha's Palace Museum in Gaza in the next few days, said ministry official Nariman Khaleh.
One thing to note: That "oldest human civilization" was pretty dang barbaric. Anat (who likely influenced the Greek god Athena) was the goddess of love and war, and the helpmate of the chief fertility god Baal. The Canaanite gods were closely linked to sex and included the practices of male and female temple prostitution, bestiality, and child sacrifice. Baal raped his sister, regularly had sex with his daughter, and went to bed with his mother after being prompted by his father in order to shame her. Anat, meanwhile, was bloodthirsty, brutal, and had a child by her brother. When the Israelites began adopting Canaanite religion, they worshipped Anat as a sexual partner of the God of the Bible.
These were the gods the Canaanites looked up to and what they used their idols for, so if I were that farmer, I'd put on a gallon of hand sanitizer after handling that thing.
Still, it's truly amazing to see that there's still a deep connection to the ancient, biblical past that can still be discovered today. It makes the stories of the Old Testament even more real when we see new evidence of these prior civilizations.
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