Evidence for the material culture of ancient Israel comes mostly from artifacts and archaeology and attests to the influence of the great empires that surrounded Israel.
The use of wall niches for Torah scrolls was a feature of some of the earliest synagogues and continues today in Mizrahi communities. This striking faience-tile mosaic structure would have decorated a…
Felix Nussbaum painted this self-portrait while he and his wife were in hiding in Brussels, Belgium, about a year before they were arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Every element of the picture…
Brickmaking by prisoners. Thebes, Egypt, 15th century BCE. This mural, from the tomb of the vizier Rekh-me-re, shows Semitic (“Asiatic”) and Nubian prisoners of war making mud bricks and repairing a…