Ibex Artifact, Jerusalem, Israel, 1999
Photograph by Kenneth Garrett
Archaeologists discovered this copper ibex artifact, along with 428 other ceremonial objects, in a 5,500-year-old cache in a cave in Nahal Mishmar canyon in Jerusalem, Israel. Casting objects such as this copper scepter or mace head required technical finesse and the use of materials such as arsenic-rich copper ore, which does not occur naturally within 800 miles (1,290 kilometers) of the Holy Land.
